Plate 69

(110) Ruth Stone – All work and no play makes Jacqui a dull girl. All play and no work makes Jacqui a mere toy.

About this Artwork
PRICE: $220 AUD

The image in my page from Newnes Encyclopaedia , hardworking Russian woman pack mud into the cracks of their log cabin to stop the chill of winter… what a different world that was!

Initially when I received my page from Artaviso, Babushka dolls instantly spoke to me, for my response to my theme page. Then I remembered the old proverb about ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dul
l boy’ which on scratching a little deeper is a 1768 quote from Author Maria Edgeworth.


These flirtatious Chinese poster illustrations of winsom girls fitted my Babushka theme perfectly and ‘All play and no work transposed to the playful Jacqui. The texture and pattern in the photo made it easy to build the image through collage, which is always a playful way to work. Not having worked with collage for a long time this was a lovely, light hearted and playful art making process which leavened my more serious painting practice.

About Ruth

Ruth’s work is concerned with the transient and unpredictable forces of time, nature and the marks of man on the environment seen and unseen, as her experience of the mysterious forces and layers of time on this land we share, pervades her sensibility bringing ghostly images to the fore. At times these ghosts tell stories of desperation, desire, of powerlessness and lost souls, tempered with a meditation on the peace in communing with our natural world. She has just scratched the surface of this rich story, the Australian historical context has many such stories, and Hill Ends history is a particularly fascinating one and was deeply layered and rewarding.

Her continued fascination with this rich story of the figure in landscape, and her deep connection to landscape and figure build an ongoing story.

The Bathurst Regional Gallery exhibition reflected a more figurative surreal response, while the works that follow are more of an abstract expression of her practice, one in which she relish’s the joy of paint, colour and mark making. Drawing and photography are also a fundamental aspect of her practice and integral to her painting.

Portraiture is also an area of fascination for Ruth and her work has been applauded and hung in various National Portrait Prizes.

Currently she is working on new material responding to her work and travels from Red Centre to the Sea. Home and studio are in Carcoar, Central Western NSW.

Link to Ruth’s Art Aviso profile HERE

Ruth was provided with the following page from Newnes’ Pictorial Knowledge Encyclopedia:

Volume 3
The story of the world and its peoples. 
Preparing for the Winter.