Cancer Journey

Hello Friends,

I have been inactive for a while because of breast cancer. I was diagnosed last October and have been through chemotherapy, surgery, and am in more chemo infusions. It has been a rough road, but I have good reports and am getting energy again.

Many plans are ahead. I hope to help my local animal shelter out by doing a pet portrait for a raffle. I am also working on a portrait of a friend at the moment. This fall, I will return to being an adjunct, teaching classes, which I love. I hope you are all well.

Blessings,

Ruth Ann

Beautiful Farm

I just finished a commission to paint this beautiful scene of a farm. The owner of the land raises sheep and miniature cows. It was a fun painting to finish. I have recently been studying Romanticism and looking at Turner’s paintings. I love the sublime. My goal was to capture the sky as the wind churned the snow clouds on this cold day.

All works are copy righted with all rights reserved by Ruth Ventrello

Owls Moon Stars

My painting of barn owls under a full moon has become very popular. It is wonderful that so many are enjoying my art, but sadly there has been some infringement on my copyright. I am not sure if I should be flattered that people love my work so much that it is pirated or upset that I am not profiting from the painting’s popularity. Hopefully, I will be able to gain more followers and sell more art.

I enjoyed painting this image, having a love for owls. Barn owls are beautiful. I love the way their feathers have a pattern that reminds me of a starry sky. The female barn owls have darker colors than the male. They are very beautiful. I appreciate getting a close up look at an aviary. The Fens Falconry in Wisbech, England was a favorite place to take my son when he was small. In the US, Bear Hollow Zoo in Athens, GA has some wonderful owls in their rescue.

“Owls Moon Stars” by Ruth Ann Ventrello Acrylic on 180lb paper ©2017 All rights reserved

All artwork and content on the Ruth Ann Ventrello Artist website are legally protected by U.S. & International copyright laws. All images are the sole property of Ruth Ann Ventrello.  Unauthorized duplication or usage is prohibited by the Copyright law and will be prosecuted. 

Living life and finding time to paint

The past year hasn’t been easy for anyone, but God is good! I am thankful for new opportunities teaching as an adjunct at a university. It has been wonderful sharing my knowledge with students and helping them succeed. Teaching is my favorite activity. I am trying to build up my professional portfolio and find some exhibition opportunities. My other activities are home schooling an autistic teen, caring for my elderly parents, being an educational consultant for our church daycare, and being a pastor’s wife. I hope to finish this painting in the next couple of weeks and start a new floral still life. I am excited about my next painting and some challenges that I will create for my skills involving a crystal vase containing a floral arrangement and goldfish. It will be fun.

Here is the latest progress on my young pygmy owl with floral still life and shells. This painting still has some fine detail and insects to paint. My work is copyrighted with all rights reserved. Please do not copy, print, or publish my work without permission. You may enjoy viewing my art on my website. Prints are available through Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ruthann-ventrello

A busy year moving house and now a pandemic

2019 was busy with moving to a new town, renovating a house, and moving again. I did find some time to paint amidst boxes and homeschooling. Now in 2020, we are in the midst of a pandemic.

I have always been interested in the floral paintings of the dutch golden age and love how they incorporate images of shells, insects, and birds into their floral still life painting, creating a game of “eye spy”.Inspired by this period of art, I have created my own still life paintings. So far, there are three in the collection, but I have plans for more as I continue to work on mastering the representation of the delicate transparency of the petals of the flowers and beautiful textures of the various shells, insects, birds, and fauna.

prints available -> https://ruthann-ventrello.pixels.com/art

A paint horse named Snickers

This beautiful horse lives down the road from me at The Southern Cross Ranch in Madison, Georgia. He has a very sweet and inquisitive personality. Paint horses are a beautiful breed with great personalities. This painting is the first horse portrait that I have done; however, I hope to do many more. Hopefully there will be commissions to do in the future.

Our family will be relocating to Abbeville, South Carolina this summer. My husband will be pastoring a church in Greenwood, but we will live in Abbeville near my mother so that I can help her. She has had some serious physical problems this past year and needs assistance. It is difficult to leave Madison, Georgia where we have lived for the past eleven years and made many friends. This summer will be a bit tricky because our house will not be ready until the end of July, and we will be living in a camper when in Abbeville, but will also be back and forth to Madison. Our Madison church has been so loving and kind to us and are letting us remain in the parsonage until our house is ready, which is wonderful. We will not have to worry about moving our furniture until the house is ready. This summer will have many challenges.

Forest Friends

This painting is finished for now and prints are available.

Fawn and forest friends

My mom and I watched Bambi together when I was a child and she has always loved this story, so I have painted a little scene recreating portraits of the fawn, rabbit, and skunk in my realistic style. This painting is not finished yet and has gone through many stages. I will be putting in final details, adjusting the composition a little (I found a couple of tangents to correct), and warming the foreground to bring it forward in space. Here are images showing the development of the painting from a very rough idea towards the almost finished piece. In another week or so I will post the final piece.

The image below shows a very rough start. I was just laying out the characters.

The forest setting is being developed and finer details are added to the animals.

I reworked the rabbit and continued laying out the forest.

In the next images you will see the details of the setting start to emerge.

In the next image, I have reworked the skunk to make him a little larger.

Check back in a couple of weeks to see the final painting. When finished, I will make prints available. I hope that you have enjoyed seeing the progression of this painting.

All artwork and content on the Ruth Ann Ventrello Art website are legally protected by U.S. & International copyright laws. All images are the sole property of Ruth Ann Ventrello.  Unauthorized duplication or usage is prohibited by the Copyright law and will be prosecuted. 

Chipping Sparrow, Bumble Bee, Butterfly, shells, and floral still life

This is my latest acrylic painting. I really enjoy the paintings of the dutch golden age and felt inspired to create my own floral still life painting. Ofcourse, I had to incorporate a bird because of my love for them. I captured an image of this little chipping sparrow in my back garden and incorporated him into this still life.

After finishing the still life with the chipping sparrow, I decided to work on a larger painting (3ft x 3ft) of a fawn, skunk, and rabbit. This painting is just beginning, and I will post images when it is complete.

Blue tufted titmouse and bee with floral still life

I am fairly happy with how this colored pencil drawing turned out, and plan on more art inspired by the Dutch golden age. I loved working in colored pencil, but may explore this them in paint too. I think that the medium of colored pencil is becoming more recognized in the fine art world. I used prisma color premier soft core pencils on canson mixed media 98 lb. paper.