I came to Edinburgh in the eighties to study French, and my degree included a course in Art History, which stimulated an interest in the visual arts. I started painting in my late twenties and have supported myself since then through painting, sculpture and music teaching. In 2000, I took a six-month painting sabbatical in Paris, and in 2001-2 I studied sculpture at the Frink School of Sculpture in Stoke-on-Trent. I am now back in Edinburgh, painting, sculpting, and teaching the piano.

Painting

The course I did in Art History whilst at University opened up a whole new world to me. Eventually, in my late twenties, I started painting. I had no formal training and had to earn my living so it was very slow. Gradually I discovered where my interests lay and started developing my 'style'. I am deeply interested in style and love to experiment and play with different styles. The mystery of creating an image and the wonderful artifice of it all I find endlessly fascinating. I tend to split my work into 'imaginary' and 'from life' with the imaginary tending to be more static/scuptural and the from life more lively and textured, but that is, ofcourse, to simplify.

Sculpture

My scuplture so far has been almost entirely figure-based and most of it in wood, but I have also worked in plaster, clay, concrete and stone.

Ruth Addinall