Meet the Staffordshire artist inspired by mid-century design

Inspired by mid-century design and her passion for drawing, she creates unique and intricate designs and illustrations for original pieces of art, prints, designs for mugs and cushions.

For all of her work Ruth uses a continuous line, keeping her pen on the page until the drawing is complete. The line is offset with blocks of colour and collage.

Ruth, who now works from a studio at Woodings Yard in Stafford, was introduced to the technique while attending a life drawing class in 1993. Her tutor suggested she drew with a continuous line and Ruth immediately noticed a difference and liked the touch of spontaneity it added to her work.

“I like how the line flows and how I can keep it moving around the page. I love the sense that the line is doing all of the work. It makes everything feel quite delicate and it means nothing has to be exact or perfect,” she explains.

Ruth became interested in 1950s design while studying for a degree in textiles and illustration at Bradford and Ilkley Community College.

“My tutor told me I must look into the work of mid-century designer Lucienne Day because we worked in a similar way."

Ruth felt a connection with the techniques, colours and patterns used in mid-century design and they have inspired her work ever since.

By the early 2000s, Ruth was creating designs on canvas and paper, inspired by 1950s interiors and exteriors. She also started exhibiting at galleries and art fairs. Between 2002 and 2007, Ruth taught art at Stafford’s King Edward VI High School. After her father passed away, she decided to focus on community art projects and running workshops in schools.

“I wanted to follow my heart a bit more and give something back to the community. I knew I could use art as a tool to help people,” explains Ruth.

Over the years, Ruth has run many educational workshops, including sessions for youngsters at an arts centre based at Ingestre Hall in Stafford.

She has also been involved in a number of community art projects including Crafting Communities, which helped to bring people together and tackle loneliness.

Ruth ran a series of workshops for all ages at Rugeley Library covering a range of techniques to help people produce artwork inspired by the town and its heritage.

In 2022, Ruth helped primary school children to make collages which took on the form of a leaf at Birches Valley in Cannock Chase. Their artwork was used to create a number of flags which were displayed for the Commonwealth Games.

Ruth is passionate about sharing her skills with others and is hoping to do more community art projects in the future.

She has also illustrated three books – The Writer’s Creative Workbook; The Happiness & Contentment Workbook; and Men Talk – Given Half a Chance.

“What’s lovely about this is that you get to leave your comfort zone and draw things you wouldn’t normally draw,” says Ruth.

For the past two years, she has been based at her studio in Woodings Yard where she works on original artwork and commissions.

Architecture and nature feature heavily in Ruth’s work and she is often commissioned by people to draw their house or business.

For each piece of art, she works from a photograph and starts drawing at top of the left-hand side of the piece of white or brown paper. She uses permanent line watercolour pens and acrylic pens depending on the project she is working on.

“I like to keep my pen flowing and I try to do it all in one go,” says Ruth, who later adds balanced blocks of colour and any additional details.

“It’s the drawing that I get most excited about and that inspires everything I do,” says Ruth.

For more information, see ruthallenstudio.com.