Artist Statement
The beauty of our world is the inspiration for my art. The “Covid years” were stay-close-to-home times, and the paintings I did then reflected my feelings about the surrounding landscape of my home and neighborhood. I found my work becoming more gestural and expressive.
Now that travel is once again possible, my life is filled with surprising and delightful art making adventures. As the world has opened up, I see that the lessons of those intimate, reflective Covid years are still influencing my art. A combination has emerged that is based on something I see that is real, but experienced through the lens of how it makes me feel.
During the time of isolation I began exploring gouache, a water-based opaque paint that is challenging and fun. Using gouache has made it easy for me to travel with my paints. In 2022, I had the wonderful opportunity of staying…and painting…in a lovely old apartment right on Lake Como in Italy. Since then I have traveled and painted in Switzerland, Italy, and in the spring and fall of 2024 I spent a total of six weeks in Scotland and Ireland, staying in lovely farmhouses and cottages that afforded me spectacular views of the countryside. My portable home-made kit of gouache paints and a cigar box easel make it possible for me to truly paint on the go!
My latest works were inspired by the eerie, otherworldly landscapes experienced during a November, 2024 trip to Iceland, and new paintings in both gouache and oil include images from travel in Portugal, Norway, and France in 2025.
I maintain a studio in my home in Chevy Chase, DC. To contact me about my work or to arrange a studio visit, please email me at: ruthmarcus99@gmail.com
Blessington Lakes in County Wicklow, Ireland, September 2024
Biographical Information
Ruth Marcus received her B.A. and M.S. from Queens College of the City University of New York, majoring in Fine Art with a minor in Education. She shared her passion for art with young people during her career as an art teacher in New York City and Washington, DC. She was co-head of the art department at the Dalton School in Manhattan for ten years before moving to Washington. For twenty-one years she taught art at Georgetown Day School. She now pursues her art full-time. Her works have been shown in New York City, Berkeley, CA, San Francisco, CA, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
