Artist: Ruth McDonald

www.ruthmcdonald.co

www.earthboundwomen.co.uk

Twitter @RuthMcDonald1

Moon Sail

Artwork

“Moon Sail” (2013)

Moon Sail is taken from a limited edition 3 colour screen print made in 2013 called “Moonlight at Mount Ephraim” based on a moonlit walk through Mount Ephraim Gardens at Hernhill near BoughtonUnder Blean Kent.

Artist Statement

I studied BA Printed Textiles in London, taught in Kent for several years, completed an MA in Fine Art at Canterbury Christ Church University in 2010. A full-time painter printmaker I work from my studio in a Kentish Copse and The Print Block Whitstable. I have recently exhibited in Cornwall, London, America and China.

My work portrays woodland landscape and the sea, often illuminated by failing light and the moon and the traces left by past inhabitants. I constantly re-visit preferred sites in Kent and Cornwall to draw in-situ, then re-work and re-order the images to produce drawings, paintings and prints.

The themes of burial and the elements are a constant focus, I often visit archaeological sites as a source of inspiration. My explorations investigate beyond the evident as I seek to reveal images as ciphers and signs of the unknown. I describe an inner landscape where we can experience a sense of rhythmic energy and vitality, reminding us of where we have come from and our ultimate destiny. The manner in which Nature eventually reverts, restores and subsumes fascinates me.

I have recently produced artists’ books and prints that reflect journeys I have made through the woods in Selling, Mount Ephraim Gardens and the South East and Cornish Coastline.

The quality of mark-making is important to me and how ideas can progress from an initial sketch to the finished work without losing spontaneity.

I am exhibiting as a selector for The Print Fair at The Sidney Cooper Gallery in August 2013, and am preparing work for a collaborative exhibition in September to be shown in the Front Room at The Beaney called “A Different Viewpoint”,traveling through Canterbury on the river Stour, tracing the river from its source in Lenham to where it meets the sea at Pegwell Bay.

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