Biography
Ruth Williams lives and works in Laois. She studied in Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland, 2014-2018. Currently Ruth is teaching art in the Christian Brothers School in Portlaoise, whilst maintaining her studio work on the side. Ruth primarily works in oil paints.
Exhibitions
2014 - 'Unruffled' The Blackbird art gallery, Rothe House, Kilkenny.
2014/2015- Group exhibitions, Dunamaise art centre, Co.Laois.
2016- 'Purge', The Hunt museum, Limerick.
2017- 'Once', Pharmacia, Limerick
2017- 'Interlude', Abbeyleix Library, Co.Laois.
2018- 'Fluxx', LSAD,Clare St., Limerick.
2018- 'Where Time stands Still', Abbeyleix, Co.Laois.
Artist Statement
Our urban lives have almost created a sensory curtailment that has distanced us from the natural world. Nonetheless, woodlands and national parks have always been a common place that I find myself encountering everywhere I travel. Using the tree as a motif in my paintings, I wish to provoke an emotional connection from my audience. I wish for the viewer to be pulled back down to the soil.
For me the image of the woodland awakens an inevitable fascination inside and revisits memories of my childhood summers. Exploring the ruins of an old house in nearby Garryhinch Woods, attempting to climb the trees, picking wild flowers, colouring bark rubbings and envisioning the magical creatures that lived there. This firm connection to all things nature is the origin of my artwork.
Inspired by the work of Peter Doig whose landscape paintings hold an otherworldly atmosphere, but at the same time a familiarity with its seductive beauty and dreamy melancholy. Another source that has stuck with me when evolving my work is the book ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ written by Peter Wohlleben, in which the forester personifies the forest as ‘social beings’. Wohlleben speaks about how the trees communicate under the ground through their ‘world wood web’ of roots and how they work together to make sure each tree in their proximity is kept alive.
The adoption of the technique chiaroscuro in my work allows me to add to the atmosphere through the use of light. With this, the use of perspective and the fluidity of the colour a type of large scale utopia is evoked. For me the colour symbolizes life. I intentionally give the trees and surrounding woodland a subtle anthropomorphic quality that gives it a somewhat compelling presence, almost forgetting the realm of man. There is a lot of gloomy art in today’s world and in my opinion my work has a certain type of ambience within it that creates a sense of joy. Fundamentally there is a spiritual dimension to the work as the trees come to life through the eyes of our inner child.
Ruth Williams lives and works in Laois. She studied in Limerick School of Art and Design, Ireland, 2014-2018. Currently Ruth is teaching art in the Christian Brothers School in Portlaoise, whilst maintaining her studio work on the side. Ruth primarily works in oil paints.
Exhibitions
2014 - 'Unruffled' The Blackbird art gallery, Rothe House, Kilkenny.
2014/2015- Group exhibitions, Dunamaise art centre, Co.Laois.
2016- 'Purge', The Hunt museum, Limerick.
2017- 'Once', Pharmacia, Limerick
2017- 'Interlude', Abbeyleix Library, Co.Laois.
2018- 'Fluxx', LSAD,Clare St., Limerick.
2018- 'Where Time stands Still', Abbeyleix, Co.Laois.
Artist Statement
Our urban lives have almost created a sensory curtailment that has distanced us from the natural world. Nonetheless, woodlands and national parks have always been a common place that I find myself encountering everywhere I travel. Using the tree as a motif in my paintings, I wish to provoke an emotional connection from my audience. I wish for the viewer to be pulled back down to the soil.
For me the image of the woodland awakens an inevitable fascination inside and revisits memories of my childhood summers. Exploring the ruins of an old house in nearby Garryhinch Woods, attempting to climb the trees, picking wild flowers, colouring bark rubbings and envisioning the magical creatures that lived there. This firm connection to all things nature is the origin of my artwork.
Inspired by the work of Peter Doig whose landscape paintings hold an otherworldly atmosphere, but at the same time a familiarity with its seductive beauty and dreamy melancholy. Another source that has stuck with me when evolving my work is the book ‘The Hidden Life of Trees’ written by Peter Wohlleben, in which the forester personifies the forest as ‘social beings’. Wohlleben speaks about how the trees communicate under the ground through their ‘world wood web’ of roots and how they work together to make sure each tree in their proximity is kept alive.
The adoption of the technique chiaroscuro in my work allows me to add to the atmosphere through the use of light. With this, the use of perspective and the fluidity of the colour a type of large scale utopia is evoked. For me the colour symbolizes life. I intentionally give the trees and surrounding woodland a subtle anthropomorphic quality that gives it a somewhat compelling presence, almost forgetting the realm of man. There is a lot of gloomy art in today’s world and in my opinion my work has a certain type of ambience within it that creates a sense of joy. Fundamentally there is a spiritual dimension to the work as the trees come to life through the eyes of our inner child.