Award-winning artist bringing exhibition of work to Northumberland venue

Ruth Murray has won several notable prizes in the last few years, including the Jackson's Painting Prize in 2020 for her spectacular piece, Geraniums.

Her ‘Black Pond, Solo Exhibition’ can be seen at The Old School Gallery in Alnmouth from April 8 to May 22.

Since graduating from the Royal College of Art, she has developed a distinctive and detailed painting style that depicts her mostly female subjects in contemporary, everyday settings, challenging traditional domestic or natural paintings of women.

Her technical skill and vivid colour palette gives rise to her hyper realistic style, creating compelling and relatable scenes that act as a window into the lives of her subjects.

The depiction of the seemingly mundane settings and the female presence are delivered with an undercurrent of psychological content that leave the viewer longing to know more about the lives of the subjects they see before them.

Ruth says: ‘My iconography is developed from everyday stories, places and faces, but also makes use of elements from older visual languages and across the boundaries between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture.

‘Sometimes I’ll confront the viewer with enigmatic behaviours (there’s always something private and inaccessible about the subjects); and at other times I’ll use rituals, symbols and tokens to disrupt the reading of the image. It’s not a radical effect: more a gentle skewing. Sometimes it’s the slightest gesture that feels most significant.’

All paintings being exhibited will be available to purchase.