Colin Ruffell

Opposite colours. Green and red are opposite colours, and that is important! Why? The theory goes like this... Humans evolved from tree dwelling apes that lived in a green world where the dominant colour was created by the green chlorophyll in the leaves. The plants couldn't much avoid having green leaves. But plants wanted tree dwellers to assist in plant reproduction by eating and spreading their seeds. So the cunning plants coloured the seeds in the opposite colour, red, t

Art as investment by Colin Ruffell excerpt from 'Art Business Today' magazine June 2010 I had a phone call yesterday from a woman who said she lived in Yorkshire. She asked about the artist Colin Ruffell. I told her that was me. She said that her reason for calling was; “…to let me know that they had an old painting of mine, about 30 years old. She had deciphered my signature, and done some sleuthing on the internet, and discovered that I was a pretty famous artist... St P

LANDSCAPE, PORTRAIT, or SQUARE are the usual choices of orientation when you start to paint a picture. ‘AMALFI’ by Colin Ruffell [OAR100132] Landscape. Obviously ‘landscape’ is called that because that is the normal format for everyday views that are wider than high. Our eyes are set apart side by side and not one above the other at a ratio of roughly 2.5 units wide to 1 unit high. So that is our normal visual field. Our brains understand that ratio and can read the whole pi

ARTISTIC LICENCE. A skill or a creative act? Artistic License (also known as Poetic License or Dramatic License). Examples would be in a written piece like a novel where the facts of history are altered for the story line, such as introducing a meeting of the fictional hero and a real famous person. Or, in a picture where details are left out like wrinkles or blemishes in a portrait. Or where the colour is all wrong. 'Black Cab' by Colin Ruffell OAR 100153 [example of art

My Technique. I have been invited by a major trade magazine to write a short 700 word piece about my technique for painting pictures. Luckily I recently recorded a video of the process as I created a painting for a collector. So this article puts into words what the video can only show in pictures. http://www.colinruffell.com/#!videos/c9d5 ‘New World – London’ OAR100608 How I make my pictures; First stage. Decide the painting method. What kind of paint, and what surface t