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Ruth
Tatter
Sea Otter
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Watercolor
wildlife portraits by Ruth Tatter
Tatter’s wildlife portraits make the viewer
the subject of an inscrutable animal gaze, inverting the usual perspective
of animal-as-subject. Liberated from notions of subjectivity and
sentimentalism, Tatter’s wildlife scrutinize us, or simply go about the
business of being wildlife, with no regard for the human viewer.
This perspective allows the viewer to effectively disappear, or to become
part of the untamed landscape; destabilizing what we think we know about
animals and our separateness from them.
Her watercolor images are photographic
in their realism and imbued with a sense of heart and dignity. Her
palette is influenced by the far-flung habitats and wetter climes that
many of her subjects inhabit. Tatter’s work has been exhibited
and collected throughout the West. She resides in the mountains
of Northern New Mexico.
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Road Runner
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Puma |
Octopus |
Great Horned
Owl
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Leafy Sea Dragons |
Turtles
SOLD |
Otters
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Snow Leopard
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Ruth
Tatter
Some subjects are
never exhausted. We focus on different details – the patterns of
bark, the contrasts of light, the texture of fur. I believe that
if you become familiar with even a part of a place, its details, you have
in some way touched it all and that the whole is an expansion of its smallest
components. If you can see the beauty of a single creature, you can appreciate
wildlife's integral part in the entire web of life.
Ruth received her
art training from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, and from the University
of Arizona in Tucson. She taught for many years at the university
level in Colorado and Northern New Mexico.
Shows
• Animals and Elements,
Marigold Arts, Santa Fe NM 2006
• Landscapes
of Enchantment, Marigold Arts, Santa Fe NM 2006
• Animals Are
Wild, Marigold Arts, Santa Fe NM 2005
• Masterworks
of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM 2005
• Featured
Five X 2, Art Center Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos NM 2005
• Traditional
Arts, Art Center Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos NM 2004
• Featured
Five X 2, Art Center Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos NM 2004
• Solo Show,
Art Center Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos NM 2004
• Traditional
Arts, Art Center Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos NM 2003
• 5000 Flowers,
Art Center Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos NM 2002
• Anything
That Flies, Art Center Fuller Lodge, Los Alamos 2002
• Art from
the Flames, Los Alamos NM 2001
• Historic
Santa Fe Foundation Art Show, Santa Fe NM 1996
• Santa Fe
Ambiance, Boulder, CO 1986
• Jack Dennis,
Jackson, WY 1985
• Solo Show,
First Nat’l Bank of Santa Fe, Santa Fe NM 1979 |
Great Grey
Owl
The Animal
Eye Paintings
Although animals
most frequently regard eye contact as a sign of aggression, we associate
gazing into a creature’s eyes as some mysterious, magical connectedness
with its inner reality, its soul.
Yet even when we
capture, study, or tame these wild beings, the essence of their lives remains
a mystery.
Perhaps there is an ancient
bond that explains our attraction to wildlife. We don’t have to justify
an animal’s existence by its usefulness to us. Its right to exist
comes from that shared bond.
As Art Wolfe puts it, “Conservation
is not, ultimately, about saving this species or that one. It is
about saving the process, power, and mystery of creation…everyone alive
is an environmentalist. Some realise it, and some don’t.”
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Marigold
Arts was established on Canyon Road in April 2002 and has since become
the Santa Fe destination gallery for watercolor paintings. The gallery
represents the best of fine art and craft by New Mexico artists, featuring
handwoven textiles, fine crafts, including wearable art, sculpture, watercolors,
and jewelry.
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