Ruth Nolan

Born in Durban in 1971. Lived most of my life in Cape Town, South Africa.
I am a self-taught, self-educated artist. I began as soon as I could ask questions and hold a pencil. I have been painting professionally for more than 30 years and I am learning more now than ever.
Nature is my best companion and greatest inspiration. Oil on canvas is my preferred medium, although I also enjoy working with watercolour, pencil and ink.
My work has evolved from folk art to fantasy, surrealism to semi-abstraction. Engaged in both realism and abstraction my current body of work offers visual and metaphysical depth in which the viewer may recognise himself in the vast realms that simultaneously surround and dwell within him.
Painting gives me the intimate opportunity to express and share this visually with others. I strive to create paintings that contact our psyche. Paintings that calm, ignite imaginations, evoke renewed incentive towards forgotten parts of ourselves, our potential and what it is to be human. I attempt to create works that remind us of who we are and what it is to be emotionally connected. I’m compelled to represent that Powerful, Unnameable Something that has me charged with yearning, roving like a lone wolf deeper and de...

Self-taught, Self-educated artist.

Brief exhibition history:
Solo Exhibitions:
2019 Solo exhibition at Chardonnay in Constantia
2010 Solo exhibition at the First Elvis Festival in Africa
2008 Solo exhibition at the Empire in Muizenberg, Cape Town
2007 Solo exhibition at The Lindberg Arts Foundation in Muizenberg, Cape Town
2003 Solo exhibition at Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town
2004 – 2010 Permanent Solo exhibition at Expresso.kom, a local restaurant where I sold frequently to local and international clients for many years

Selected Group Exhibitions:
2020 Greyton Art Walk, Greyton Western Cape
2020 Noordhoek Auctioneers
2020 Bassa Gallery Claremont, Cape Town
2020 Red! The Gallery since 2010, Cape Town
2019 Café Nood in Claremont
2019 Joint exhibition at Kirstenbosch Gardens, Cape Town
2019 Noordhoek Plein Air events and Auctions
2019 Pure Porterville, Porterville Western Cape
I am a member of the Artists of the South and have participated once or twice a year in collective exhibitions for more than 10 years
Numerous cafes and dinky coffee shops in and around Cape Town
The Post Office Gallery
Chameleon Gallery in Kalk Bay
Grahamstown Festivals
1990 – 1995 Permanent stand at the Watershed in the V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
1993 ...