Ruth LaGue: "Vanishing Perspectives" Opening Art Reception

For its late winter exhibition in Brookline, Athan's Café Art Gallery, one of the best venues for contemporary art in Greater Boston, proudly presents: Ruth LaGue:  “Vanishing Perspectives”, a solo exhibition with 18 encaustic paintings by Boston artist Ruth LaGue. In this exhibition,  curated by John Quatrale, the artist captures the horizons of our lives. The public opening reception is Sunday February 24 from 7:00-9:00 pm| The exhibition concludes on March 31, 2013.  All of the paintings on exhibit can be purchased at the opening reception and throughout the exhibition run.  Athan’s, which has  been exhibiting some of the top regional artists at both of its locations for the past year, is located at 1621 Beacon Street in Brookline’s Washington Square and is open everyday from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm.

This exhibition of encaustic paintings presents familiar linear horizons or skylines separated by skies, water and land.  The encaustic paint is basically the use of colored pigments added to heated beeswax.  Ruth likes using this medium for her landscapes as they require “attention, manipulation, spontaneity and like nature itself, it can be unpredictable.” Sometimes, she adds oil paint and even a concrete cement mixture to the wax. First, she begins each painting by drawing the horizontal line that will become the horizon and then uses her memory or a photograph to capture a bold and colorful response above and below that line. Many of her newer paintings an elevated level of wax texture that add a greater sense of realism to the panorama. Sometimes, as in Desert Wildfire, she adds muted flowing clouds and a mix of rippling sea colors to create a greater sense of mystery and the present moment for these “vanishing perspectives”. Ruth then “mimics the brightness found in nature, such as a warm sunset or the minimal stillness of a northern oceanscape, with its cool blues”.  The result is a simple but mesmerizing picture of one of nature’s most profound and contemplative vistas. To Ruth,  true horizons “represent fragments of time that will never be again; intimate moments shared with something greater than myself; quiet meditations to which I bear witness. They compel me to paint.”  As such, she prods the viewers to look beyond trying to identify the specific horizon in favor of  experiencing and feeling the stillness as well as the unifying power of those fleeting skylines.

Ruth LaGue, a native of Alaska, resides in Boston and maintains her studio in the historic Gorse Mill Studios in Needham.  She received her Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) from the Rhode Island School of Design.  She also earned a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Simmons College.  Ruth has been painting for over 20 years and has exhibited in many local galleries in  Massachusetts, including the Galatea Fine Art and Bromfield Galleries in Boston’s SoWa district, the Cambridge Art Association’s gallery, the Fuller Craft Museum in Brockton, Provincetown’s Kobalt Gallery and the South Shore Art Center in Cohasset.  As an exhibitor in the Pawtucket (RI) Foundation Prize Exhibit she was selected as the Prize Winner.