Landscape artist Ruth LaGue is on an incredible artistic journey. Her paintings mirror the depths and passages that she has traversed in her busy life. She pulls her creativity for painting from an adventurous and passionate life that began in Alaska. In Alaska, LaGue was surrounded by an enormous and amazing vista of colors, textures and layers. She recognized that she was a small part of something much larger than herself. In addition LaGue traveled through India in her twenties and became consumed by the landscape of the spirit, that limitless interior universe that lives in each of us. The marriage of the two experiences ignited a lifelong quest to connect the outer and inner within her paintings.

While settled, LaGue continues her adventurous travels through her art. She graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI and then pursued an MBA degree from Simmons College. Deciding to stay in Boston, she began a successful career as a graphic designer. At first, her focus was to solve visual problems for clients. It was exciting, educational and temporarily fulfilled her creative side.

LaGue still works as a graphic designer, she thrives to tirelessly paint landscapes (both encaustic and acrylic) to satisfy that aforementioned quest to connect the outer and the inner. LaGue maintains an active studio at the historic Gorse Mill Studios, a non-residential community of over 50 artists based in Needham, Massachusetts that includes artists working in ceramics, jewelry, photography, illustration, encaustic, glass, performing arts, painting, graphic design and more.

LaGue likes to experiment by painting her expressive landscapes with different mediums and surfaces. Her large encaustic landscapes on paper are nothing short of majestic. Her acrylic landscapes on stretched canvas and or linen draw you into a multi faceted world of color and vision. To her, landscapes represent fragments of time that will never be again; intimate moments of communion with something greater than herself; quiet meditations to which she bears witness. They compel her to paint every chance she gets. Her inspiration is internal and gets energized by her surroundings.

According to LaGue, “I take a lot of notes about what I see around me, as I’m walking my dog in the morning, commuting to work or riding in a car. I also follow a lot of photographers on Instagram. I will often combine images from the scenes I noted, combining skies from one image and land, water or whatever “scape” from something else. Most often I begin my work by dictating the experience and in a very short time the work itself dictates the direction or the scene from which I’m painting”.

Designers particular seek out LaGue’s work as her art sets the perfect ambiance in many rooms in a home. Clients have said, “The painting (LaGue’s) literally creates a calming force field in and around our dining room table and our home” – Meredeth and “What drew me to the paintings I bought from Ruth was the texture and the sense of depth. Though they are small landscapes, they’re full of action and movement and whenever I look at them I’m able to see subtleties that make them seem new each time” – Mike B.

In April, 2017, LaGue placed in the Providence Art Club National Open Juried Exhibition: Making Your Mark, a juried open national exhibit of contemporary women artists only. This exhibition was juried by Kathryn Wat, chief curator at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) in Washington, D.C. and it featured 65 pieces selected from more than 980 entries.  LaGue has exhibited throughout the U.S and her paintings can be found in numerous private collections; the corporate collection of BioMed Realty, Inc. and on permanent exhibit at the Encaustic Art Institute in Sante Fe, NM.

She finds that the most exciting part of the creative process is observing the juxtaposition of colors and textures as they form a depth of field — how a simple dark line next to a light field of color can come alive and represent a landscape in its barest form; Notice the complex technique of layering that directs you the viewer into multiple, lingering depths of emotion and earth spirit.. Ruth LaGue strives for visual economy in her work: Can a block of color represent a field of dry grass on an early spring morning? Can a simple, dark blue line that runs across the canvas embody the ocean’s edge at sunset? She wants her viewers to imagine themselves within the landscape, recalling a memory or pausing to remember their wholeness.

Join LaGue on her journey and enjoy her paintings. www.laguewax.com.