Encouraged by her artist mother, she occasionally won drawing
competitions for young people. She wished to paint, but supplies were
difficult to find during her teenage years in the 1930s.In 1949, alone
with a young family in a remote logging camp, she began to paint
greeting cards in watercolours, and then to use oil paints and pastels
received as gifts. She received her first commission of three compatible
watercolours there, then in 1952, she won first prize in Duncan for an oil painting reproduction
.
By
1958, she was a serious artist, had joined The Crofton Art Group,
painting in oils weekly with Arnold Burrel and other well-known artists,
and was showing regularly. She then took an 18-month art course with
Jack Wilkingson, then of Victoria. The class finished in the
instructor's studio.In the '70s, she participated in a month of daily
art classes and chose to work in batik.
By 1975, now able to
pass on her art expertise, Ruth taught two day workshops for 12
students. Her work sold well and, combined with her teaching earnings,
she was able to enrol in the University of Victoria's Fine Arts program
during 1979-80, taking second- and third-year drawing, painting,
printmaking, and poetry.Her artwork hangs in homes, offices, and
collections in Canada, USA, New Zealand. She has created special
calendar art and museum backdrops, and has participated in
numerous shows, in Comox at the Pearl Ellis Gallery and the Filberg Park
and Lodge, as well as in Cowichan and Nanaimo.
Ruth loves to
express her love of her environment, but has not restricted herself to
any particular subject or style, although she enjoys the realist style.
She is proficient in a variety of mediums, including oil, acrylic, soft
pastel, ink, watercolour, batik, charcoal and pencil. She has also made
collages from tissue/masa paper and seashells.
Before God made
man, he made a beautiful world for him to live in, and we see that
beautiful world around us on a beautiful day off the coast of southern
California. Jim saw a lot of God’s beautiful world in his life. He grew
up in the beautiful green hills of Yorkshire, and he loved to recall his
bike rides—once even down to the North Sea. He lived on three
continents (in England, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the
US).
God didn’t put man just anywhere in the beautiful world but
in a garden where he would work as a gardener. Anyone who’s been to Jim
and Teresa’s house knows that they are gardeners. You can see the care
they’ve taken to make their plot of earth beautiful. They decorated
their house inside and out, and especially at Halloween, Christmas, and
Easter they put up a lot of extra decorations to make the neighborhood a
nicer place to live.
But the beautiful garden wasn’t
enough. God saw that it wasn’t good for man to be alone. He brought
animals for man to name. I got to see the special relationship Jim had
with animals when I saw how he loved his little dog, Abbie, and Abbie
loved him.
But animals weren’t enough. God made man a companion who was exactly right for him. God gave Adam Eve, and
he gave Jim Teresa. Anyone who saw Jim and Teresa together could see at
once that in a special way they were made for one another. They were
married for almost fifty years. We know that marriage is a gift from God,
but in these days it’s worth pointing out that when a couple stays
together as long as they both live, that’s a gift that they give to
their family and to their community.
But God would not let death
have the final word. He sent his son to die for us, to deal with the sin
that alienated us from God. Jesus was willing to make the great
sacrifice it would take to defeat evil and gain back the life and
liberty God intended for us. The Bible says that “God so loved that
world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him
will not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). Through Jesus
our sins can be forgiven and we can be reconciled with God and have
access to eternal life.
God’s plan is not just that our spirits
would live on after death. He promises to resurrect the bodies of those
who believe in his son. Jesus said, “This is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him should have eternal life;
and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). When we see a
body reduced to ashes and dust, it seems hard to believe that one could
be raised up again. But it’s only reasonable to believe that if God made
man out of dust to begin with, he could do it again.
When we
remember Jim and his life, we are reminded of the remarkable power and
goodness of God in creating him, breathing life into him, and pouring
gifts into his life. When we remember his death, we are reminded that we
have sinned and that will die as well and return to dust.
But
when we remember Jesus and his death, we are reminded that our sins can
be forgiven. When remember his resurrection, we are reminded that our
only hope is that God who created us in the first place would re-create
us, breathe life into us, and allow us to share in his eternal life.
Read the full products at http://artsunlight.com/ .