Just an Echo. Genevieve Beatty, artist
By Gina Malone
Genevieve Beatty calls her painting process “a dance between feeling and discipline,” adding, “Ideally I’m flowing and my paintbrush is practically magic, but that can’t always be achieved, and there are times that I need to slog through until I catch my flow again. I feel a lot of emotion while I’m painting. I’m telling a story, I’m expressing an idea and I’m fully wrapped up in it, around it and inside it. Sometimes it’s painful and I dive down into a deeper part of my consciousness to paint a difficult subject matter, and other times I am filled with the pure joy of putting color on a canvas.”
Like Water Off a Duck’s Back. Genevieve Beatty, artist
Story is an important part of her art, and history and mythology are her greatest influences. “I have studied the Old Masters such as Rembrandt, Vermeer and Rubens,” she says, “and spent hours looking at their work. I am fascinated by such different emotions and feelings that can be achieved through paint.”
As she creates, Genevieve says, she taps into the qualities of celebrated artists from different time periods. Told at Rhode Island School of Design, where she graduated in 2024 with a BFA in Painting and a minor in Art History and Theory, that there is not one way to paint, she has spent the time since her college days exploring artistic eras and learning from their representative artists. “As I paint, I try to harness the tightness and control from the Dutch Masters, the breath and ease from the Impressionists and pigments of the contemporary age,” she says. “I love melding ancient stories with old techniques, and contemporary experiences.”
One of her favorite works is Just an Echo, a large-scale double self-portrait currently on display at Kiitos Fine Art, in Asheville’s River Arts District. “It is inspired by the myth of Narcissus and Echo, the motifs of the pre-Raphaelite era and my experiences as a woman in art,” Genevieve says. “The painting depicts a female figure, in my likeness, lying by water, looking at her reflection which is maybe more than just a reflection. It’s my relationship to my work, especially my self-portraits. I spent a year working on this painting, trying to get the details just right. And to be that focused on the tiny details of my own image feels both eerie and calm, in a way becoming both Echo and Narcissus. Many of my paintings have layers of meaning to me, and I find that their meanings continue to evolve even after they are completed.”
Sphynx. Genevieve Beatty, artist
She grew up in a family of makers and knew, early on, that art was the path for her. Valley, mountain and river were backdrops to her childhood in Fletcher. “I love to paint trees and plants almost as much as I love to paint the female figure,” she says. “Nature is a timeless backdrop and serves as a portal to telling the story that I want to share. I draw upon many mythical stories in my paintings, and play with themes of the female experience, and I think the female spirit is so tied in with nature.”
She paints primarily in oil, using a combination of self-made paints and pastes and purchased materials. “Starting from college I found myself gravitating to specific consistencies and textures of paint,” Genevieve says. “At times I couldn’t find what exactly I was looking for so I would make my own painting additives to achieve a certain texture.”
Bottle Up a Bleeding Heart. Genevieve Beatty, artist
Genevieve’s art school experience and her entry into gallery representation were both marked by events beyond her control: first, COVID during her school years in Rhode Island, and then Helene when she graduated and came home again.
“It was an extremely lonely time,” she says of the pandemic years. “The usual fun of university was cut out to prevent the spread of COVID. I have many memories of working extremely late in my studio, partly because I had nothing better to do. Also, due to the limitations of gathering, many hands-on facilities were not available for the first two years of my school. This created more of an emphasis on digital art making, which was very difficult and even more isolating for someone so deeply interested in historical and traditional materials and techniques.”
After graduation, having gained experience in art conservation as well and harboring hopes of finding a job in the field and going to graduate school, she still knew she wanted to find time and space to continue painting. “I was touring studios in the RAD one day, and the next, the world was turned upside down,” she says. “I was incredibly lucky during the hurricane and will be forever grateful for that. The days and weeks following the hurricane, as we all know, were strange to say the least. That surreal pocket of time away from ordinary life allowed me to set up a home studio and do some soul searching. I realized I didn’t want to do anything other than paint, and I was ready to jump head first into my real dream instead of teetering on the edge of two different paths in life. A few months later I started displaying my work for the first time in a gallery. In a strange but beautiful way, the hurricane allowed me to tap into myself as an artist away from the pressures of art school.”
Weighing the Heart Against the Feather. Genevieve Beatty, artist
Andy Buchanan, curator and studio artist at Kiitos Fine Art, believes that the narrative quality of her work draws viewers in and heightens curiosity. “Genevieve Beatty is a fantastically talented, modern-day visual storyteller of ancient tales, and we are very excited to be able to display and sell her masterpieces,” he says. “Her use of Old-World mythology aesthetically told from the female perspective is something I haven’t seen before, and I’m so thankful I have the pleasure to be surrounded by not only her wonderful creations but also such a genuine and kind human being.”
That sense of story and acting as a storyteller keeps her painting. “I love the act of painting, of course, but I also love that it allows me to tell a non-linear story,” Genevieve says. “The meaning behind a painting can vary and deepen beyond the level of words. It can make you feel something unexplainable.”
Find Genevieve Beatty’s work at Kiitos Fine Art, 146 Roberts Street, Suite 104, in Asheville’s River Arts District. Learn more at KiitosFineArt.art and at GenevieveBeatty.com. Follow Beatty on Instagram @genevievebeattypainting. Studio visits are by appointment. Kiitos Fine Art has invited Genevieve to be part of its monthly Artist Focus Series in October.
