Greetings from (at last) a sunny Suffolk (UK).
And greetings from my contemporary art practice.

Good to have your company. I hope all is well, and as always, I do welcome your suggestions and feedback. Please don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d be grateful to know what you’d particularly like to hear about in the work I do.

Blue is on my mind.

Bluebells.
I live in rural Suffolk, about 5 miles inland from the coast at Southwold, home of Adnams. This sunshine is intensifying the limes, yellows and now, blues that suddenly seem rampant all round us in this welcome light as April draws to a close.

I am reminded of another April, on holiday on Mull, when the colour blue absolutely amazed and dazzled me. I had always thought that bluebells grew in woods. But during that wonderfully sunny fortnight, acres of open mountainsides gradually filled with them. The scene was made even more vibrant as the lime green of new bracken shoots surged through.

I tried to paint what I saw: the impact of it, the power, surprise and delight I felt.
I was pleased with this watercolour.

It sold :))

So what now?

Wriggling out of this winter has seemed difficult, and I confess to still feeling that I want to just take my time – across the board, in life in general.

In the studio I’m waiting.
April and May seemed suddenly to be packed with commitments: 3 exhibitions overlapping and June Open Studio season ahead.

Gallery East, a very professionally run space in Woodbridge, Suffolk, is now closing ‘The horizontal landscape’. One of 5 artists represented in this show which ran through April, a range of my abstract responses to landscape were included.

Whatever I make, its always ‘about’ more than what I’m looking at.

In these two square acrylic inks on board for instance I am working with colours, shapes and lines that are evident in the rural landscape at this time of year, but I am also conscious of relationship, contact and distance, things attracted and repelled, and dynamics at depth. This may seem pretentious, but as someone who worked with people for 30 years as a psychotherapist, and also really, from my experiences within my own life, these are elements that deeply interest me.

The oil above immediately fits the brief of ‘horizontal landscape’ but I gave it the title “Broad enough for my joys and sorrows”. As a Yorkshire lass, the moor tops were a place of solace for me. Their spaciousness, the unique quality of the air, and plaintive calls of Curlew feel like home.

Well, this is long enough for a blog post!

Come and see me in Bungay at Bell Gallery through May.
And in June at my studio in Wenhaston, IP19. (See ‘Events’)

I am planning a fallow summer period through July and August, keeping work commitments minimal. I have a sense that from this ‘waiting’ will come some satisfying and interesting new work. Yesterday’s walk in the bluebell wood brought unexpected and fascinating discoveries: a large enclosure boundaries by fence of gathered branches. I am aware that it is connecting to feelings about ‘enclosure’, ‘protection’, ‘secrecy’ and more….

Please feel free to use the contact form to sign up for not too frequent newsletters to hear more.

Details of my exhibitions etc are on the Events page of this site, and you can also find me on Instagram: @ruthmccabeartist8420