Ruth began drawing at an early age and painting in oils at the age of ten, at her childhood home in Fresno, California. She has won numerous fine art and design awards throughout her life and was highly influenced by the west coast artists of Carmel, CA as a teen, taking instruction from some of them in oils and watercolor. Particularly of interest to Ruth were the techniques used for "trompe l'oiel" — a term meaning "to fool the eye" with photographic realism.
An art major in college, Ruth had a lengthy successful career as a graphic designer in her adopted state of New Mexico where she has lived for 40 years. In addition, she taught graphic design and desktop publishing for several years at a local art college. Her love of teaching will always be important and rewarding: she now teaches her artistic grandchildren, and is on the Faculty of the New Mexico Art League, teaching eager students the techniques of layered transparent watercolor, and enjoying every moment of that!
Ruth prefers to paint still-life and portraiture. She has painted in various mediums since childhood, concentrating on oils, but almost completely transitioned over to watercolor in 2009, finding it to be an exciting, fast medium in which to work — where the water is a moving vehicle to carry the pigment into unexpected places.
The beautiful subject matter offered by the Southwest, in New Mexico's "Land of Enchantment" has given Ruth much inspiration through the years, although she continues to enjoy portraiture (humans and pets!) more than anything else. She finds the human face to be beautiful beyond compare, discovering the Creator and "Master Artist" living in every pair of eyes. Like DaVinci, she believes that the highest form of praise to the Creator is to copy creation’s beauty, which is the reason she paint in a highly-realistic style.
