Ruth Stage
Overview
Swimmers, 2024
Ruth Stage shows us the minutiae of the grand vista, a landscape of illumination, pattern, reflection and great distance. Working in egg tempera she creates a fluidity that reveals dramatic skies, mountain ranges, turbulent shallows. Superimposed onto this is the 'story of the day' be it figures on the beach, the first moment of spring, the remnants of a crop on a frosty morning. A limited palette gives an impression of the subtlety of nature, a cluster of almost indistinguishable greys punctuated with the cadmium of a leaf, transparent in the evening glare. From this complex formula the artist creates coherence, revealing harmony and balance without interruption.
Ruth works in the ancient medium of egg tempera on hand prepared gesso board. The tempera is an emulsion of egg yolk and distilled water and is mixed with mulled raw pigment. The gesso is made from glue size and chalk whiting all heated up on a stove (never boiled ) to the consistency of Yorkshire pudding mixture. Several layers are left to dry before being sanded and sealed with a final layer of glue size. Ruth draws on a wide variety of brushes as she paints, often choosing wide and flat brushes for early applications, then working towards pointed more Japanese style for final for final flurries. Her compositions are sourced in parks and coastal areas and captured with a sketch book and a camera.
Born in Hartlepool, Ruth studied at the Royal Academy Schools, graduating in 1995. In 1999 she was elected to the New English Art Club.
In February 2013 she won the £15,000 Lynn Painter-Stainers art prize for her work The Isabella Plantation.
Ruth's paintings can be found in many private and public collections including, the Charing Cross Hospital and Durham University.
Works
Exhibitions
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20 Years of Cavaliero Finn
Revisit Cavaliero Finn's landmark 20th anniversary exhibition at Stockwell Studio 8 May - 1 Aug 2024In 2004, Juliana Cavaliero and Debra Finn curated their first exhibition as Cavaliero Finn in a home in South London and they haven't looked back since.Read more
For this exhibition, Cavaliero Finn returned to its South London roots to celebrate its 20th birthday at Stockwell Studio. The exhibition featured a wide range of artists who have shown with the gallery over the last 20 years including work by our current portfolio of artists and work from some of our earlier artists, like painters Holly Frean, Daisy Cook and Caroline Popham, paper artist Thurle Wright, designer makers Sam Edkins and Deborah Bowness, and sculptors Tom Stogdon, Danuta Solowiej, Merete Rasmussen and Patricia Volk who returned to the gallery as guest artists for this show. The exhibition also included an installation by textile artist Isabelle Fletcher and new work by Lise Herud Braten, the most recent additions to the Cavaliero Finn portfolio.
Revisit this exhibition online now.
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Winter - The weakening eye of day
Gallery 12, Cromwell Place, South Kensington, London SW7 2JE - 22nd-26th November, 11am - 7pm Wed-Sat 11am-4pm Sun 22 - 26 Nov 2023In November 2023, Cavaliero Finn presented a selection of artworks at Cromwell Place chosen to evoke winter in different ways, whether it’s capturing the essence of it through light and colour, the sense of decay through texture and material, or the sense of beauty hope and renewal through composition and context. The Winter exhibition was dedicated to artist Judith Tucker who died suddenly on Monday November 13th 2023.Read more
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Related content
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20 Years of Cavaliero Finn
Revisit Cavaliero Finn's landmark 20th anniversary exhibition at Stockwell Studio 8 May - 1 Aug 2024In 2004, Juliana Cavaliero and Debra Finn curated their first exhibition as Cavaliero Finn in a home in South London and they haven't looked back since. For this exhibition, Cavaliero Finn returned to its South London roots to celebrate its 20th birthday at Stockwell Studio. The exhibition featured a wide range of artists who have shown with the gallery over the last 20 years including work by our current portfolio of artists and work from some of our earlier artists, like painters Holly Frean, Daisy Cook and Caroline Popham, paper artist Thurle Wright, designer makers Sam Edkins and Deborah Bowness, and sculptors Tom Stogdon, Danuta Solowiej, Merete Rasmussen and Patricia Volk who returned to the gallery as guest artists for this show. The exhibition also included an installation by textile artist Isabelle Fletcher and new work by Lise Herud Braten, the most recent additions to the Cavaliero Finn portfolio. Revisit this exhibition online now.Read more -
Winter - The weakening eye of day
Gallery 12, Cromwell Place, South Kensington, London SW7 2JE - 22nd-26th November, 11am - 7pm Wed-Sat 11am-4pm Sun 22 - 26 Nov 2023In November 2023, Cavaliero Finn presented a selection of artworks at Cromwell Place chosen to evoke winter in different ways, whether it’s capturing the essence of it through light and colour, the sense of decay through texture and material, or the sense of beauty hope and renewal through composition and context. The Winter exhibition was dedicated to artist Judith Tucker who died suddenly on Monday November 13th 2023.Read more