About the Artist -

Ardoth Ferrell Rutherford

​

My painting is meant to be a personal celebration of the natural world.  The impetus for my subject matter is to share the beauty of the Created order which inspires me.

 

A native West Virginian, I lived for a time in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, DC.  I have returned to the Appalachian region and culture which I love.

 

Although I received a degree in Fine Arts with the intention of becoming a museum curator as well as a practicing artist, I put the dream of being an artist aside when I became a mother.  Instead I achieved a Master’s of Renaissance Literature degree and became a teacher of Literature and Rhetoric both in public and private education, serving later as an administrator as well as an educator.  Somewhere along the way, I discovered I fell in love with teaching and never looked back!  I came to know that teaching and working with young people was my true calling.

 

However, I always painted in spare moments while my daughter was at home, and when she entered college, I began to take workshops and take my painting more seriously.  I have studied under Tom Lynch, Linda Kemp, Janet Rogers, Sterling Edwards, and Marc Moon here in the States, and with James Flack and Anne Connor-Gordon in Ireland.

 

My love and appreciation of the landscape have been enhanced and nurtured by years of travel throughout Continental Europe and the United Kingdom, with extended stays in Ireland where I practice my special love, plein air landscape painting.  Plein air is the perfect approach for me in that I am able to combine my love of nature and my love of painting in watercolor.

 

Although I do paint in oils and pastels, watercolor is my medium of choice because it is an exciting and joyous medium which matches my passion and sense of adventure.  Painting in watercolor is always an adventure due to its unpredictable nature, often surprising the artist with something other or even better than what was intended when first touching the loaded brush to the dampened page.  When it works its special magic, its spontaneity and serendipity create a freshness and a beauty which no other medium matches, at least for me.

 

I had the honor of winning the top prize in a painting competition presented by The Artist’s Magazine, an international art magazine.  Although the challenge was open to artists working in all media, my entry was a watercolor landscape.

 

My paintings hang in private collections in the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Dubai, as well as here in the United States.