my name is ruth, hello.

Work In Progress.

I have just update and refreshed my website to better show off my art work.

Hopefully, this will allow my work to be more accessible and easier for me to update when I make new cards, and hopefully bring me in my first commission.

Fingers Crossed!

xoxo

After Lichtenstein, we went to The Royal Academy of Arts to see Edouard Manet’s Portraying Life. The exhibitions was vast, with lots of Manet’s work, in five different rooms.

Most of the paintings focused on his portraiture, hence the exhibitions name. Portraiture is it my favourite art work, for reasons I can’t figure out why, just not been a fan. Maybe colour is not so vivid in most portraiture? But for me, My favourite part of his paintings were the use of light. He painted light and shadow so well into his work, really picking up the light and dark tones in his paintings, along with the expression of the figures.  One painting in particular stood out for me. I discussed it with my boyfriend, who viewed it a different way from me. I saw it as a maid looking at her master longing to be part of his life more, envious of the life he leads. He is standing in the forefront, focus on him, the important one. While, the maid and what looks like an older figure in the background, the older figure very much in the shadows, not always noticeable when looking at the painting.

Despite the focus of the exhibition about his portrait work, there was also some portrait landscape paintings, my favourite. More colour, greens for grass and trees and pinks and purples for flowers make the paintings more vibrant. As always, the light and shadow of the paintings are vivid and strong really showing off his talent. They really impressed me.

Overall, both Lichtenstein and Manet put on great shows. My personal opinion, with my attraction to colour would say Lichtenstein put on a better show, but the artistic talent of Manet is brilliantly evident in his work.  Both talented artists in completed different ways. Both a must see.

On Friday my boyfriend and I went to see Roy Lichtenstein’s show at the Tate. I have been around Lichtenstein’s work since high school, even recreating one of his paintings for a research project. I had only seen his more famous pop art works, and the exhibition surprised me with his different works but same style. 

I really enjoyed his Japanese pieces. They were so calm and tranquil, but still conveyed his sense of style and colour.

landscape in fog painting 

seascape

Another part of the exhibition I liked was his more abstract work.

perfect painting

At the exhibition there was two similar paintings next to each other; one perfect and in the ‘correct’ rectangular shape and one that stuck out from the canvas, creating the imperfection. Despite the painting being called imperfect painting it was in fact more perfect than the ‘perfect’ painting. It was more aesthetically pleasing, highlighting perfection isn’t key. To me, this is striking and saying a lot to the art world. 

I love his use of colour in his works. Again, anything bright, attracts me and pulls me in and Lichtenstein certainly does this. All of his works contain strong colours contrasting and blending with other colours in his paintings. Colour excites me, but one room; the black and white room was just as intriguing. Without the colour, Lichtenstein’s work was different. Rather than bold and bright, it was still and subtle. The way Tate conveyed this room impressed me. The walls were painted a bluey grey highlighting the lack of the colour in the room. The room took on a different atmosphere and seemed to be a chill out room; displacing us from the bold bright colours in the other rooms. 

tire

portable radio 

My next blog post is on Manet, another brilliant artist, but with contrasting styles.

Met Mark Hoppus this week. No biggie.

For my bestie Julie moving down to London, I wanted to make her something to make her feel welcome and to know what is good to do in London.

Since my history is in maps I decided to make a map to show places of interest; popular tube stops, my work, restaurants, pubs etc. It also got me being creative again and do something different than just cards.

Home Sweet Home for my bestest Julie who moves down to London from Scotland to live with me.

Red Arrows fly over Trafalgar Square for Olympic Parade .

Vintage Threads I bought from Cloth House. My favourite colours…

This blog post is massively delayed. I didn’t post it because I didn’t feel I was saying anything worth blogging, but there is some work I liked and want to put on my blog.

A couple of months ago I visited The Air Gallery in the West End of London to see The Art of Mapping. An exhibition about, you guessed it, maps.

Ever since I started researching maps over a year ago I developed an interest into them and would love to continue to design and create maps in the future and when I saw the article about the exhibition in Grafik, I knew I had to make the effort to go.

My first favourite was Gonkar Gyatso’s Chelsea map, a mixed media collage on paper. Just up my street, I love that kind of stuff. Typically, I can’t find the Chelsea illustration online, and I didn’t take a picture, but with a google search I found work of his that is similar.

I liked the relaxed and fun tone it portrayed but the messages it evoked were real. With the Chelsea image it brought up Occupy Wall Street as well as World Trade Center.

Another favourite I saw at the exhibition was Claire Brewster’s work.

She had cut out birds from maps and hung them on the wall. I really liked the colours of the map used which reflected feathers of the birds and the shadows on the wall the birds created. It is so simple and humble and shows how maps can be used not just to navigate but for art.

I have followed Stephen Walter’s work from last year when I watched ‘The Beauty of Maps’ on BBC and I am inspired by his simple, fun illustrative maps.

Cai Yuan created ‘One World, One Dream’ representing all the countries, different colours, different shapes as singular countries but with one dream.

All of the above work inspires me that I can use my “old fashioned” art skills in this digital world to create pieces of art that will still stand out.