Art and Artists
Artist Of The Month - Ruth Middleton
Ruth Middleton has been a professional artist for many years. After graduating from Vasser College in 1942, Ruth studied painting in New York in the Art’s Student’s League and in private studios. She received advanced degree’s from Wesleyan University (MAT) and Cranbrook Academy of Fine Art (MFA). She now divides her time between Venasque in France and Apricale and Venice in Italy.
Ruth Middleton at the opening of her show in 2015
Her life as a painter began at the age of 6 in the studio of her maternal grandfather, Edward Volkert, an American impressionist painter of German origin who was a member of the Old Lyme, CT. artist’s colony. Due to her mother’s fragile health she was more or less raised by her paternal grandparents, members of a group of intellectuals, writers, and musicians that composed the faculty of Urbana University in Urbana, Ohio. This provided fertile soil for Ruth's developing passion for all the arts.
It was in 1980 when Ruth moved to France, settling in the Provencal village of Venasque. In the course of an annual trip to Tuscany for a supply of alabaster she discovered the marvelous mountain village of Apricale. Eventually she bought a house near its famous Piazza and, for a number of years concentrated her work there.
Ruth's studies in art history at Vassar and Wesleyan resulted in her lecturing in a number of colleges in Michigan and at the University of Connecticut. She observed how the concept of “art”, evolving over millions of years, served the varied interests of ritual, religion, decoration and entertainment. In her own life Ruth was conscious of the importance of creating to emotional and intellectual survival. She has experimented in a wide range of materials–stone, wood, bronze, photographs, graphics and painting. Exploration has always been of primary importance. Ruth now feels that exposure to ALL the arts is essential to the very survival as a species.
At the age of 95 Ruth Middleton continues to be an inspiration.
