About Ruth

Ruth’s career brings together three long-standing interests: art, education and the natural world.

Originally from the North East of England, Ruth studied English at Newcastle University before training as a teacher at Durham University. After working in adult and primary education, she returned to her first love of natural history, drawing and painting.

In 2008 she studied Botanical Illustration at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London, gaining its prestigious Diploma in Botanical Illustration.

Since then, Ruth has developed a practice encompassing botanical and natural history painting, illustration, printmaking, teaching and commissioned work.

Her paintings have been exhibited throughout East Anglia and her work is held in collections around the world.

Observation is at the heart of Ruth’s work.

Botanical art requires more than simply making a plant look attractive. It involves understanding its structure, recording its distinctive characteristics and translating three-dimensional form onto a two-dimensional surface.

Ruth’s work combines this scientific attention to detail with the qualities of a painter: colour, composition, texture, light and atmosphere.

She works primarily in watercolour and gouache on paper, wood and vellum, as well as pen and ink and printmaking.