Ruth Armitage is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and the Northwest Watercolor Society, and Past President of the Watercolor Society of Oregon. The Watercolor Society of Oregon has awarded her its Outstanding Service Award and nominated her as Oregon’s Delegate to the Western Federation of Watercolor Societies. Ruth’s work has received many local and national awards.
Ruth has been profiled on PBS’s Oregon Art Beat in 2004 and exhibits her work at the Mary Lou Zeek gallery in Salem, Oregon and the Riversea Gallery in Astoria, Oregon. She is a gifted instructor and has juried several local and state exhibitions.
Ruth is a fourth generation Oregonian and maintains a small farm and studio in rural Oregon City with her husband and three college-aged offspring. Gardening, literature and genealogy often inspire her paintings. A former high-school English teacher, Ruth pursued Art as a second career through independent study with nationally known painters including: Skip Lawrence, Christopher Schink, Alex Powers, Donna Zagotta, Arne Westerman, Judy Morris, and Mark Mehaffey among others.
"Gathering" copyright Ruth Armitage 2009, Watercolor on Yupo 25"x25"
My work celebrates the rural. In retreat from the clamor of cell phones and computers and from the daily barrage of bad news, I paint solitary figures in settings of hearth and homestead. My interest in genealogy leads me to think about what country life was like in the past and that nostalgia and isolation find their way into the paintings.
Contented Solitude, my current series, suggests many aspects of being alone. While my earlier work explored family relationships, this series focuses on relationships with the natural world. Here symbolic elements such as the family tree recur, linking the idea of nature to heredity.
This evolution arises out of loss: we are all, ultimately, alone. I want these paintings to convey the positive aspects of being quietly solitary along with the hope and tranquility that nature reveals to us when we look and listen and feel. Growing up in the country allowed me the space to retreat into the woods and fields when things got chaotic or uncomfortable. Today I again find myself enjoying the luxury of a long thought and the company of quiet deer, noisy jays or gently chucking hens, and these, too, find their way into what has become a visual chronicle.
I push watercolor beyond its normal, pale, safe boundaries to its vibrant emotional potential. My strongest artistic influences have been Bonnard, for his translations of domestic scenes into shimmering kaleidoscopes of color, and Milton Avery, whose evocative shapes were drawn from his family and surroundings.
Most of my paintings begin with drawing a simple shape on the page to which I add color and detail intuitively as the work progresses. I work from imagination and observation, often combining both in one painting. The fluid, juicy qualities of watercolor fascinate and seduce me. Recently I’ve been exploring acrylic, enjoying the freedom to layer even more color, to experiment with texture, and to work on different surfaces such as panels and canvas.