"Watermarks up the Noosa River" – Noosa Regional Gallery, QLD Nov 2016-Jan 2017

"Watermarks up the Noosa River" touches on the idea of a pilgrimage. To quote Grayson Perry "A pilgrimage is part penance, part holiday and part exploration (of the self as well as the world). It is a great metaphor for our lifelong search of meaning". For many years, Beatrice has been kayaking up the river to camp over night. The Noosa River upper course is part of the Great Sandy National Park and forms a unique well preserved ecosystem within it as it is not easily reachable. This sanctuary is a tribute to many generations of visionary national park supporters and volunteers. Her challenge was to bring this magical environment intra mural in order to share it with locals and visitors who have never been there or cannot discover it for themselves. For those of you who have been there, those works will bring back some amazing memories and emotions.

But this body of works is more than a tourist advocate for a leisure outing or a sportive workout. It is more than pretty pictures. It echoes a spiritual journey into such an incomparable place. The works transfer the intimate relationship experienced with the water and the environment while on this journey. Feeling the power and the fragility of the place, the Everglades induce a sense of sacred as well as a dark side; a sense of an alternate reality where time stops. Reflections and distortions become the norm. Calm, stillness and peace are the destination.

Using a particular technique of mark making enables Beatrice to channel these emotions. A photo is a direct perception of a moment; a frozen realistic image in time and space. Printing it on large scale art paper allows echoing this reality while at the same time opening the image to another dimension. The carving action is the artistic gesture that singularises the print. Thousands of white marks slowly carved out of the print bring this other reality, creating something which was not already there with immediate and direct perception.