Artist's Profile : Miriam Ruberl

A full-time professional artist, my desire is to transmit my passion and gratitude for life and the personal privilege of being alive. My work is frequently inspired by the mysterious, the fleeting moments in nature and personal encounters when I witness a glorious meeting of natural elements such as the sun, moon, wind, clouds, water, sands, and I despair of ever fully transmitting their sublime qualities – but quitting is not an option !

I am also regularly driven to paint by the outrageous inhumanity of people towards each other, and the plight of peoples devastated by the natural catastrophes of our times, as well as those humbling moments when people anonymously come to each other’s aid in the face of life’s unbearable blows, or two human hearts touch each other, however briefly.

I am fortunate to equally enjoy contemporary realism when painting with watercolors, and using acrylic paint and other media such as ink, oil sticks, pencil, and pastels when working abstractly. Not bound to one medium or genre, there are nevertheless recurring, recognizable motifs: strong textures, iconic symbols such as the figures of women and children, feathers, stones, leaves, sometimes subtle, sometimes intense colors, moods and emotions reflecting energetic events that linger long after they are no more.

The alchemy between the surface, the medium and the tools used to apply it are an endless source of wonder and surprise. Each medium offers a different energetic experience and language, and the variety of work reflects the impact of world events in my life. Experts will readily identify a number of influences in my work. The artists I admire are too many to mention, and I myself am not consciously working within any one movement or style of art – I am drawn firstly by form, texture and colour. It is the PROCESS of painting that enthralls me as the work unfolds from within me. While I might set out with a theme, feeling or subject as an irresistible trigger, the finished piece is simply the witness to my perception of reality or response at that point in time. I paint because I must. I am often surprised !

It has been said: "Miriam lives art, and makes art because she has to. ‘Art’ is her passion, her refuge, her vehicle, her voice to invite others to pause, look, and real that precious, enduring feeling of hope and human compassion deep within them selves, and celebrate that". I can only agree.

Artist’s background

Miriam has been painting for some 10 years. A growing body of traditionally realistic and contemporarily abstract works in water colors, pastels, acrylics and mixed media are now in Bay of Plenty collections, as well as other parts of New Zealand, Japan, Australia, the USA, Ireland and Spain.

Miriam has won a number of awards for both realistic and abstract paintings, and successfully participated in the Combined Bays Art Exhibition, Whakatane’s Molly Morpeth Cannaday Exhibition, Art and Faith, 3 Bay of Plenty Garden & ArtFest Exhibitions, The NZ Affordable Art Trust Exhibition of 2006, and numerous individual and group exhibitions in the Bay of Plenty.

A recent series, Elementals, which reflected on the tragic unfolding of the 2004 Tsunami (2 paintings from which appear on this page) has drawn considerable positive comment as to the feelings these works evoke, and several pieces now feature in the homes of collectors and art lovers in New Zealand.

During 2007 Miriam participated in the Telecom White Pages Competition (Bay of Plenty), the NZ Affordable Art Trust Exhibition (Wellington), the National Woman’s Work Art Exhibition (Gisborne), and the Tauranga Society of Artists Inc Annual Exhibition (Tauranga).

2008 was spent travelling. Miriam is now settled into new premises in Rotorua.

Contact the Artist

Further work can be seen at URL www.creativetauranga.org.nz,
and at her studio in Rotorua by arrangement. Please make contact on

Email : artist@beauty4you.co.nz
Mobile : 027 2487542

Links

www.affordableart.co.nz
The New Zealand Affordable Art Trust's annual collection, of established, emerging and new artists' work, all for sale under one roof

www.ArtExpoSite.com
see "Exhibition" page gallery # 25 for more of my works and for other quality original New Zealand paintings at excellent prices

www.creativetauranga.org.nz
Creative Tauranga making a positive difference to the arts in the Bay of Plenty

www.womansart.co.nz
Annual National Women's Art Exhibition held in Gisborne, supporting the women artists of Aotearoa

www.tlc.ac.nz
Turn your life into a work of art at The Learning Connexion of Wellington