What I love about water – ocean, lake, river, waterfall – is how it is always changing. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même. Change is inevitable. The challenge is how to capture the depth, the movement. In my abstract, acrylic paintings, water sometimes looks like water, but it also sometimes looks like space or sky. Honestly, it’s not something I always control. Some paintings just happen.
What I love about water – ocean, lake, river, waterfall – is how it is always changing. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même. Change is inevitable. The challenge is how to capture the depth, the movement. In my abstract, acrylic paintings, water sometimes looks like water, but it also sometimes looks like space or sky. Honestly, it’s not something I always control. Some paintings just happen.
RUTH HURD
FINE ART
Abstract
Embracing my emotions... letting the paint flow loosely, less precisely...
My watercolors (and then acrylics) began moving toward abstraction - became more about patterns and repetition, focusing on the essence and feeling of the memory.
Yet, the subject matter always varied. I have loosely arranged them into seven different collections.
Atmospheric
After moving to acrylic and abstraction, I wanted my paintings to be looser, vaguer, without giving up the subject.
Water & Space
It's always changing. Start with one and end up with the other. In the end, the painting defines itself.
Crossroads
The archival footage of the atomic tests in the Pacific was riveting and unforgetable.
Experiments
By definition, things you try that don't last are experiments (everything starts as an experiment).
Iceland
Iceland itself was abstract. And it continues to provide inspiration.
New Zealand
Conveying movement continues to challenge.
Socotra
Friends are invaluable. They provide (among other things) encouragement, perspective, and inspiration.
Sicily:
Beautiful scenery (beaches, salt flats, sunsets, Mt. Etna) some of it expected, much of it not. But all of it begging to be painted.
Africa:
So much of Africa defies expectation. Many go to see the animals. I went (and will return) for the spectacular scenery.
South America:
Chile and Argentina, huge and hugely varied, in terrain, culture, weather, you name it. From the cities to the glaciers, the Andes (southern Alps) to the pampas, huge ranches to cosmopolitan coffee bars, Chile and Argentina are fascinating.