My Art is Pretentious.
I paint beautiful things. While in art school, beautiful art was characterized as decorative art and excluded from contemporary art. That isn’t true anymore. Many women artists are now successful painting beautiful abstract art. Their art may be beautiful, and I enjoy it very much, but just like in school, I'm still going against the grain because I don't paint abstract art.
From time to time, people tell me that my paintings remind them of Georgia O’Keeffe. I love her work, but I am not trying to be Georgia O’Keeffe any more than I think I should paint abstract paintings.
Illuminated Iris
"Your art is beautiful reminds me of
Georgia O'Keefe."
Palo Duro Canyon
"Very Georgia O’Keefe!!" Instagram Follower
I paint to achieve a feeling of serenity and peace. My son Scott says my paintings are spiritual. He is a former art major at UT Austin who ended up graduating in Design, and he is my best art critic. He’s very thoughtful and, as a designer, has deeply considered various subjects, articulating his observations well. When he says my art is spiritual, I listen. I don’t know how that happens, but that’s exactly what I’m aiming for. I find it hard to say it myself—that my art is spiritual—as it sounds a bit pretentious.
Morning Seascape
The Painting Scott says looks spiritual
Painting like a designer paints.
As far as technique, my process is more about how I plan the work and sketch it out than how I actually paint a piece. As I sketch an idea, I simplify it, change the composition, and frequently crop the object. If there is too much detail, I leave it out. Certain shapes and spaces appear while I work, instead of focusing on the whole. I balance color, creating light, medium, and dark spaces in the work. Not aiming for realism, I work somewhere between realism and abstraction.
Although my goal is to paint watercolors that sell and are accepted into fine art shows, these goals aren’t the reason why I paint. To create from the inspiration I find in beautiful things and share that beauty with people who understand why I paint—that is what I want to do. My art is about connection.
The Best Connection
When I paint, I feel connected to the Creator of the Universe. My art is a gift given to me by Him. I deeply appreciate that—the way I create is unique to me, and He understands that because He put my creativity inside me when He knit me together in my mother's womb. When I paint, I understand that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. When someone like my son can look at what I do and recognize that it is spiritual, then I know I am creating art the way I was meant to.
My name is Ruth, I'm a Dallas watercolor artist who aspires to create paintings that reflect the beauty of the Lord for people who desire to connect to something greater than themselves.
An Artist Mission Statement
