Artist statement
My work addresses themes of absence, memory and female identity and has evolved from an exploration of the empty domestic interior. It explores the borderland between absence and presence and between the familiar and the strange. I use the motifs of wallpaper and women’s clothing to evoke the presence and traces of past or absent inhabitants. These elements also reference the ambivalent nature of the home in regard to women, particularly mothers; a place of sanctuary and comfort but also, potentially, a place of oppressive confinement and isolation in which they can become subsumed - just ‘part of the wallpaper’.
My drawings are a response to the idea that walls can hold stories or presences within them. They engage with Freud's concept of 'the uncanny', which highlights the strange and unsettling aspect of the mundane and everyday.
I work with charcoal and mixed media, mainly using a method of frottage which I have developed over a number of years.
Current and forthcoming events
- March - June 2013: Drawn 2013, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol (more info)
Qualifications and training
- 2007 MA Fine Art (Research), University of the West of England, Bristol
- 1982 BA Visual Communication (Illustration), Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, Wiltshire
Group exhibitions
- 2012 160th Autumn Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
- 2012 Wells Art Contemporary, Wells and Mendip Museum, Wells, Somerset
- 2012 Wunderland II, TactileBOSCH Gallery, Cardiff
- 2012 New Visions, Grant Bradley Gallery, Bristol
- 2011 Open Studios, BV Studios, Bristol
- 2011 HerStory by Women's Work, The Link Gallery, University of Winchester, Winchester
- 2010 Open Studios, BV Studios, Bristol
- 2010 Art in Action, Waterperry House, Oxfordshire
- 2010 Smoke, Black Swan Gallery, Frome
- 2009 157 Autumn Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
- 2009 Affordable Art Fair, The Westergasfabriek, Amsterdam
- 2009 Wessex and West Country Women Artists, Bowlish Gallery, Shepton Mallet
- 2009 Affordable Art Fair, Temple Meads, Bristol
- 2009 Chelsea Art Fair, Old Town Hall, Chelsea, London
- 2009 Drawing Room II, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
- 2008 Drawing Interiors: Fran Richardson and Ruth Wallace, Bristol Drawing School, Bristol
- 2008 156 Autumn Exhibition, Royal West of England Academy, Bristol
- 2008 King-sized, Centrespace, Bristol
- 2007 MA Graduation Show, University of the West of England, Bristol
Workshops
- 2008 Drawing classes and workshops, Bristol Drawing School, RWA, Bristol
