Colin Ruffell
'Born in 1939, I was bombed, evacuated, educated, expelled, repatriated, married, bred, qualified and taught; until in 1965, aged 26, I became a professional artist. Since then I am proud and happy to have survived.
I qualified from two Art Colleges in painting, design and printmaking, and the Open University in psychology and aesthetics; plus I hold a reasonably clean driving license.'
Colin has been a pioneer of changing techniques for artists. In the early sixties he was one of the first British art students to use the then revolutionary medium of artists' acrylic paint, and he has been a consistent advocate ever since. In the nineties he spotted the potential of giclee printmaking, and the Internet as an exhibition space. His enthusiasm led The Fine Art Trade Guild to elect him firstly as a Court Member and then as Chair of The Guilds Printers and Publishers Committee where he is involved in setting worldwide standards for the fine art publishing industry.
His pictures are varied and he paints in many styles. Some images are childlike and amusing, others are traditional landscapes, and yet more are complex modernist abstract relationships of colour, texture and shape. He claims that he paints in explosive bursts, necessarily punctuated by long spells of getting ready or recovery from the last effort.
