Ruth Egon

Inspired by nature, my artwork expresses resilience, abundance and hope.

Guiding and teaching others to be creative motivates me to host workshops, a podcast and co-run an online Art Membership 'Art Hub'.

I believe creativity should be accessible to everyone, and the power of creativity to improve overall wellbeing in people.

Artist Statement

Inspired by nature, my artwork expresses resilience, abundance and hope. As a working class woman born in Walsall, my early experience of growing up in a post-industrial town, lined with abandoned factories, disused canals, exuded a sense of apathy and inertia. Walsall’s glory days of a bustling leather making industry serving Victorian working horses with saddles is barely visible now, amongst its foreground of graffiti covered walls, vape and charity shops. When New Labour moved out in 2010, it stripped the town of the last of its vibrant nightlife and high street.

I found solace in the art studios of Walsall College where I studied a Foundation Degree in Art. Here, I discovered the glamorous and shimmering paintings of David Hockney’s Califorian series ‘A Bigger Splash’. And I experienced being transcended to an atmospheric and warm culture through Van Gogh’s ‘Cafe Terrace at Night’.

Being inspired by art fuelled me with hope that I could aspire to a better quality of life, surrounded by beauty, generosity and more fun.

For me, natural beauty encapsulates generosity with its infinite colour palettes, the millions of species of flowers existing in all shapes and sizes, and the resilience to adapt to all environments. I chose to paint with a sense of possibility with a little fun sprinkled in, to uplift the viewer and bring them back to nature, a tonic for the velocity and anxiety inducing contemporary life.

My painting process builds up layers of oil paint in an intuitive way. I want to create a sense of time passing in my artwork. I'm achieving a sense of both fragility and resilience of nature from the way I layer up paint. It is also a nod towards the urban environment I grew up in, telling social history in neglected factories and graffitied walls has always fascinated me.

Early on in my life I discovered how mindset affects the outcome of our lives. As thoughts lead to decisions we make, which essentially can either constrain or liberate us. We are part of nature, and can adapt and flourish too. Born near the city that invented ska, the West Midlands is a mixing pot of cultures and classes. I was raised as an egalitarian and think it’s even more important now to honour the voices of the down-trodden working class, and provide a voice of hope and resilience.

About

Ruth Egon celebrates the natural world, with abundant painting tapestries of joyful colour, whimsical style and abundant energy. She encourages embracing mother nature, and the feminine world as a source of strength, resilience and inspiration. The never ending beauty and variety of nature is a source of wonder and something we can all connect to. This connection grounds us to being the best version of ourselves. Coming from a unique upbringing, being raised by a single father has helped her embrace a different perspective and be comfortable with the quirky.

From Ruth,
The calling to create art started very early for me, in fact my earliest memories I remember creating, drawing, crafting in all forms, and I even formed my own artist community ‘Ruth’s Art Club’ at primary school. Every birthday and Christmas had a long list of crafting supplies, and I was lucky enough that my father encouraged my passions. The first artwork I saw that viscerally moved me was Van Gogh, Cafe Terrace at night (1888).

Van Gogh Cafe Terrace at night

The experience made me feel moved to a different place, a magical place outside real life. I felt the power art has to move you, shift emotions and transcend. I had quite a challenging childhood, and finding a new space that evokes a positive mood was a relief and a light turned on for me. At that point I knew I wanted to be an artist and that feeling has never left. I also realised in this moment that everything is temporary and emotions change depending on your surroundings.

My ambition is still to create a moving experience for the viewer, to take them to a place of wonder and delight, through uplifting colour palettes and natural forms.

Creating joy and uplifting people really motivates me to create artwork. I love natural beauty and the themes of botanics and living creatures are a common source of inspiration for me. The natural world's variety of life, colours, shapes and forms is a never-ending source of wonder and curiosity for me. The experience of being within nature is both humbling and awe-inspiring.

Growing up in an unconventional family, with a single-parent father raising me and my brother, I experienced feeling left out of normal family life and society’s expectations. This life experience led me to always lean into empathy, and being comfortable with unconventional ideas and celebrate differences. For this reason, I love quirky things and combining contrasting visual references together.

I want to celebrate difference, and live a curious life, embracing idiosynchronicity. There’s nothing I like more than browsing charity shops, finding unique treasures, and wandering around a garden to find new species of plants.

Pattern and rhythm feature a lot in my work, as I find these naturally occurring patterns in nature a tonic to a sometimes complex and anxiety-provoking contemporary life. My bold and bright colours uplift and inspire, encourage goodwill in people and give people the courage to keep going. I believe more love is needed in the world to create a ripple effect of empathy and kindness. I’m passionate about looking after the environment to sustain our precious natural world. You can read more about how I put my environmental passion into action here.

I do have a formal art education, however, I studied Textile Design at Winchester School of Art, not in Fine Art (like you might understandably presume). I had some success as a freelance textile designer, but I realised a few years ago (during the pandemic) that painting is really where my true passion lies and fits me best. The process of painting is very much a slowing down and considered way of creating in contrast to textile design which is dictated by trends and seasons.

Since going back to painting I have exhibited in New York, Venice and Milan, and appeared in Vanity Fair. Coming from a very humble background growing up in Walsall, a post-industrial town, the response to my artwork has taken me by storm, but I love hearing about the positive impact my painting has on people’s life e. I now live in Dunfermline in Scotland in a more rural setting. My ambitions are to create art accessible to everyone and I hope in the future I can bring art exhibitions to people who wouldn’t necessarily walk into a gallery, to show them the power of art, in an unconventional and welcoming setting.

My artistic values lead the direction of my work

Create breath-taking beauty inspired by nature
Use colour and pattern that uplifts, is playful and joyful
I combine quirky ideas, mixing representational and abstract styles
A slower more considered process of painting suits my preferred way of creating
I'm passionate about encouraging everyone to create. I like to build confidence in younger artists and break down elitist ideas about entering the world of art
I get inspired by walking in nature and different cultures to find new colour-ways and motifs
Mental health is a subject close to my heart. As a young person, I felt left out of 'normal' society having a single dad raise me. I now embrace weird, strange and different things, and help others do the same.

Mindful art workshops

I host mindful art workshops, where the focus is on observing from real life (in natural settings), and trying new creative techniques as a group.

The 2 hour art workshops 'Mindful Musings' are designed to tune into nature as our inspiration to get creative.

You will explore different art mediums and techniques in a relaxed and informal manner, designed to stretch your imagination and have fun with new processes.

You will learn creative key skills for observation and be guided on how to use your perceptions to inspire art. Enjoying and observing nature benefits mental health and art will stimulate your imagination, in a social and relaxing setting.

If you would like more information on hiring me for a workshop, drop me an email at ruth.egon.art@gmail.com