Meet the Artist - Ruth Brown

Name: Ruth Brown

Nickname: Struth, Ruthie and Dorey (due to my lack of memory!)

Occupation: Artist

About you: 

I am a very proud Mum of my 3 wonderful grown up children. I have a fabulous husband called Dave and the most ugly cute dog called Sweep.

I am a true enthusiast for V.W beetles and camper vans, as you will see in some of my work. This was triggered after watching the film Herbie. I like to think that my Beetle has a mind of his own.

I absolutely love painting and have begun to spend a lot of my time advancing with my art work. I also like to keep fit and enjoy precious time spent with family and friends.

I am a Christian and since I began my art classes I have really looked at Gods amazing creation. To attempt to capture any part of it in a painting is both a privilege and daunting. 

I love walking my dog and Dave and I often take him on longer walks at weekends, when we can. Sweep is my most constant companion and very precious as I am often at home alone now that the children have grown up and Dave works away from home a lot. You may see sweep in some of my paintings.

My favourite times are when all the family are together and we play crazy games, chat, watch films and there's usually a few tricks played on people!

I am a fun loving, far too open, caring love bug and enjoy a party. I also love the sun and regularly get my batteries charged by going to our beloved North Cyprus, with friends and/or family. The sun and bright skies renew my energy and I do love a tan.

Funniest Moment:

My life is full of funny things, often involving my children who are now all grown up and married.

I have a problem remembering things as I have M.S. It is frustrating but sometimes useful. I am going to tell you my most recent ridiculous performance. I was on holiday with my husband, which is very relaxing, each night we were lucky enough to go out for a meal. On one particular night, as I walked to our first floor apartment, I noticed that the lady who lives beneath us had changed the things she had by her door. Then as I passed her balcony, I saw a lot of people were gathered there. This was strange as she doesn't really have people gather at hers. I started to go up the stairs, when I realised the steps were yellow and ours are blue… I then realised that my lovely husband had parked in a different place to usual without me realising. When I got into our apartment I asked Dave why he didn't say anything, he just said "I wanted to know how far you'd go before you realised”.

Scariest Moment:

One of my scariest moments was when the children were young and we were holidaying in North Wales. On one day we decided we would go to visit a castle. There was lots of excitement as we climbed up one of the towers. Luke, aged 4, was leading the way as we twisted round the spiral staircase. Suddenly light appeared and Dave, fortunately, grabbed Luke as he almost walked straight off the top of the tower! In those good old days, health and safety wasn't what it is today. We have been since, and there are safety barriers everywhere.

Favourite Artist:

I have always liked Monet and wanted to be learn how to water colour paint, so that I could attempt something similar to his work. I soon discovered that I am far too much of a control freak for water colour.

I also like some of Van Gogh and Picasso's work.

I was inspired by Susan Entwistle after seeing some of her work displayed in a garden centre. Her work is all done in pointillism, which is a style I have used in some of my work. I found this was an easier way of finding what works for me and gave me the confidence to then attempt more complex work such as animals and figures. For some reason, I found it easier to paint in dots, than painting brush stokes. Mind you, this is when the tremor that comes with M.S. helps!

How did you get into art?:

I enjoyed art at school but hadn’t really done anything since then, other than with children through my family and work.

I became unwell 10 years ago and had to stop working. I began to rekindle my love of sewing and knitting.

Becky Newell (artist and director of Origin Arts) is a very dear friend and talked to me frequently about the benefits of painting. I eventually gave in and, with her positive encouragement, sometimes blunt in a way that only friends can, I began to love it!

It is beneficial to me to spend some time being still, which is something I am not at all good at. When I sit down with my paints and go into my imagination time just disappears.

I often embellish my art, partly because I think it adds a different dimension to my work, but also because I often have tremors in my hands which makes painting details difficult. The embellishments are a way of adding detail without quite as much precision required.

I have a lovely studio in our garden built by Dave, which even has electricity and a wine fridge! It's a lovely, peaceful place to be and hours slip away when I'm in there.

        

Meet the Artist - Chris Jennings

Name: Chris Jennings

Artist challenges:

Being organised!  Something that is regularly heard by me "I'm just going to... Oh no! Where are my paints, pens, paper, etc?"...

First painting in oils

Favourite artist:

I find that difficult to answer as there are so many whose work I greatly admire, contemporary ones such as Kurt Jackson, Claire Wiltshire, Amanda Hoskins, Maurice Sappiro and Ken Knight. Going back through time, though, I can't ignore Turner, Constable, Van Gogh, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Gwen John, Klimt and numerous others.

How did you get into art?:

From childhood, I have always loved art: drawing, painting and just looking at it. I like to be outdoors, enjoying timeless, unspoilt scenery and vast skies. I appreciate the way that light changes the atmosphere and mood of a place. If you can manage to capture just a little bit of what you are trying for, painting can be really exciting. As an artist, I aim to continue to improve my skills, but I also want my paintings to say something.

When I was a little girl I would play with my crayons and paints. I'm still playing today and I think that's important, there's no point in art if it is a laboured chore. As well as my childhood play, I was influenced by watching Adrian Hill and Tony Hart on TV, often trying out projects for myself.

Moving on to secondary school, I was fortunate in having an amazing art teacher, a gifted teacher of painting and drawing who really taught and art became my favourite lesson.

It wasn’t until many years later that I returned to art, taking mainly local classes in oils, watercolour, acrylics, drawing and composition over the years.  I am extremely grateful for the encouragement and insights given to me by the different tutors of those classes. I started to attend the St Martins art class led by Becky Newell and this has become an important time for me where I can take time out and indulge in making art in an atmosphere of encouragement and (always) constructive criticism.

I love to try something new, be it a new medium or technique and I get very absorbed in looking at art, studying the work of many different artists.

Doing art changes the way you look at things, I could spend hours studying trees or clouds, thinking about colours, shapes and the ways that the objects in a scene relate to each other and continuously have a painting in my head to work out. I am inspired by many different things but always seem to return to the sky and sea, and their different moods, hoping to bring those feelings to my paintings and I think that somehow, whatever you're feeling comes across if you are truly involved with the subject.

Education:

I recently took part in an Art School held at MAC, Birmingham along with many other artists. I decided to paint on the theme or 'Peace' and what it means to me. As a person who sees letters in colours I choose to take the colours that I see the letters of the word 'peace' as and do a painting for each letter. Based on one of the most peaceful places I know, the Norfolk coast. When I see a letter in isolation it always has a colour.

'P' is blue - 'Blue Beach'

'E' is yellow - 'Yellow Reeds'

'A' is green - 'Green Alexanders'

'C' is blue - 'Blue Rockpool'

'E' is yellow - 'Yellow Beach'

These prints have been in an exhibition in Cambridge for a month and I have been chuffed to have sold some.
Some of my 'Cat Portraits' were in the same exhibition, these were painted for charity, to help a project in Egypt which cares for children who have to live and work in Cairo Brick Factories. These are quite different to my usual work and fun to do.

Anything Else:
Recently I have started to help Becky in the St. Peter's Origin Arts class and have begun to lead a small art club in central Worcester, it's great to be able to encourage others and pass on some of the things that I have learnt.

Favourite luxury - Strawberries

I am constantly wanting to explore different mediums and techniques, art is so interesting! I've used pencils, charcoal, graphite, watercolour, gouache, oils, acrylics and felting.

Recently done a Batik workshop and can't wait to get started on working in at home.

I started oils many years ago by joining an evening class having a little exhibition in the local library. I find art where the classes were held and that was the beginning of my addiction.

        

An Introduction to Origin Arts

Hi, you’ve found yourself at Origin Arts and you probably want to know a bit about us. Founded by Becky and Paul Newell, we are a growing community for the creators and the appreciators of art. We believe art is a storytelling process; inviting the viewer into the artist’s story.

Follow the blog and join our community of diverse artists and the thinkers that make it all happen.

There isn't a secret gene that enables you to be creative, only the will to have a go. We will be posting some online tutorials to give you some pointers of where to start. We haven't forgotten those of you already bitten by the bug, so we will have tutorials for you too. We will be bringing the incredibly successful Origin Arts classes to you. You won't even have to leave the comfort of your own home to be able to join in the enthusiastic community.

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We are enormously privileged to be able to work with some wonderful, professional artists who will share their lives with us too. Take a peek into what inspires them, what brought them into art as a career and join us in their day to day creative challenges. Keep up to date with their work and follow our latest pieces for the website as they’re being produced. We are so lucky to have such a creative crew!

Behind the scenes with Becky, Heather and Paul as they restrain, drag together, juggle and have fun bringing the story of Origin Arts to you!

Enjoy!