2025
29th May to 3rd June
Suffolk Open Studios 2025 Spring Exhibition
Watch out for further news on her Instagram account: @ruthmccabeartist8420
“Precious Saltmarsh” – Collage on cradled board 60x80cm will be hung.
A piece marking the importance of coastal saltmarshes in controlling rising sea levels and storm surges. Unframed browser pieces and cards will also be available.
Ruth will be present in the Theatre between 1 and 4pm on Friday 30 May.
Sat 7th to Sun 15th June
Summer 25 Showcase
Watch out for further news on her Instagram account: @ruthmccabeartist8420
Ruth will be showing new work in this exhibition in early June 2025.
Ruth is submitting four new collages (see ‘Work: Collage” on this site) and four watercolours celebrating the Suffolk coastal landscapes and sea swimming.
“East Coast Revival”
One of the galleries Ruth has produced work for over the years ran an urban themed exhibition, and this piece was one of her submissions. Visits to Lowestoft walking north of the wind turbine conjured a feeling of the deep industrialisation of this port, sadly undermined over the years, but possibly now with hope of revival?
An unusual for Ruth painting, using mixed media and a very free mark-making style. It was invigorating, risk taking and fun.
It has energy, power, and conveys determination that this coast can be rebuilt and return to thrive!
“Light at Low Tide”
Another fine example of Ruth’s sensitive use of watercolour washes to create an abstract composition responding to the sense of wide open spaces on the Suffolk Coast. Light sweeps across this wide painting.
We could be standing on the bank at Hen Reed Beds watching the changing patterns and mood. Its a still day with nothing to disturb the quiet, sublime feel of this precious environment.
“Blackshore” Oil
The weight of timbers, the age and ‘standing power’ of the Blackshore huts, the gorgeous ultramarine, golden yellows and rich browns of this piece reflect Ruth’s love of the sea and all things associated.
Now resident in Reydon she is delighted to be within walking distance of all that this means. Things built to last. Things built well. Things built to withstand the power of the sea and storm forces. Things unconcerned with style and fashion. Things free. Things playful.
The depths which only oil paint can give is clear in this painting, its colours enhanced by soft surface sheen. Ruth uses texture when painting in oils, and in this piece, there are scraffito marks and abraded areas which echo the impact of the elements on these old stalwarts.
“Not a Breath” Hazlewood Marsh
Ruth began working with ‘pure’ watercolour (as opposed to water based media like acrylic), in 2010, after painting for 10 years in oils.
She wanted from the start to find out how watercolour can be used in a more abstract style, and never sought to accurately depict particular places, but more to convey the emotional impact of a landscape in varying lights and weathers.
This unique piece shows the advanced stage of her use of translucent layers of washes, to build the composition and convey her experience of the day, the place and the atmosphere. She chose to find edges and lines in the composition via the drying edges of the wash rather than via drawing.
Discovering the marsh in 2018, Ruth’s old training in Botany was again revived in finding that the decision had been made to let nature take its course after the 2013 breach in the sea wall broke down the development of the marsh as a freshwater breeding ground for the Avocet. It was beginning to show the signs of species loss in the salt water, but the renewal of bird and plant life adapted to brackish and salt conditions.
The day she painted this was hot and sunny. The piece radiates colour and light.
“Blackshore Pile Up”
Abstract watercolour worked from sketches at Blackshore, Southwold Harbour.
A joyful composition taking pleasure in the wonderfully loose, scattered accumulation of seafaring vessels and associated objects that create the no-nonsense hardworking focus of the harbour, and somehow hint at the harsh conditions these vessels and crews must face.
Worked on Two Rivers Paper Company exquisite 700lb watercolour, deckle-edged, cold pressed, hand made paper, floated to show off its quality and fine edge.
February 2025 for 6 months
“Ruth is the first artist selected for the launch of ’The Studio’, the latest arrival in ’South Gen’s’ remarkable “David and Goliath” project which has been transforming the old hospital site in Southwold into a community hub since 2016, after the NHS sold the beautiful Arts and Crafts building to the highest bidder. Owned now by 377 members, the hub reinvests all profits back into the community.
Now living only a mile or two inland from this delightful and peaceful space, Ruth benefitted very much throughout 2024 from The Canteen’s hospitality and welcoming staff, as she made a difficult way through some major life changes. The Canteen is a unique and beautiful cafe/restaurant. For Ruth it was a quiet place of solace and friendship.
She is therefore delighted to be invited for the latest project, The Studio, to share some of the work she has made over the years, which very much relates to the Suffolk coast and in particular to Blackshore, Southwold and the coastal marshes now under threat from ‘Lionlink’.
Not a gallery per se, and mindful that visitors may be seeing the work while attending other activities, Ruth has chosen her larger works for The Studio, providing notes on the inspiration for each work, and information about its particular location. Several of the pieces are informed by her understanding of climate change and the protective role of saltmarsh in coastal erosion. All of them are celebrations of coastal light and the straightforward working environments of harbours and boatyards which she has always loved.”
Ruth’s exhibition can be viewed at the Studio on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays between 9:30am-4:30pm.