Ruth moved to the Cowichan Valley in 1950 where
she lived and worked until 2002. She has an early (1958) prize ribbon
for a first time exhibit at the Duncan J. C. Hobby Show. In 1963 she
joined the Crofton Art Group, working and showing with them for many
years. Cherry Point Art Group, the CVAG Spring Shows, Mill Bay
Community League and POG printers, also showed her work.
Ruth’s first solo show was
held in the Duncan Library. She is proud of placing first on two
occasions in the Nanaimo Showcase in the 1970’s. After one of these
shows, her large oil triptych was subsequently lost in a fire in a
Nanaimo store.
One of Ruth’s watercolor
paintings was chosen for a Scottish calendar in 2002. In 2003 a
California business bought the right to use twelve of her images for
their 2003 calendar. Two large oil paintings are on permanent display
at Sooke Museum. These are backgrounds for a logging display and an
early fish-trap show.
Ruth moved to the Comox Valley in
September of 2002 where she has continued painting with the Brushworks
Group, and has also completed several commissions. She had a six month
show, ‘Retrospect’, in St. Joseph’s Hospital Cafeteria in 2006, shared a
show with Elsie Griffiths in November 2007, ‘Original Prints’, and had
her own show to celebrate her 90th birthday in November 2008,
‘China Girl’. Both shows, Original Prints and China Girl, were at the
Pearl Ellis Gallery.
Ruth
was born in Scotland. She had her first drawing lessons with her artist
mother. She discontinued artwork in her teens to resume working on her own
after her three children were past baby hood.