Ruth Burden

British 1925 – 2012

She had no desire to replicate images in the way that a photograph might, but preferred to capture the essence and character of her subjects by exaggerating or inventing. Burden developed her painting style through an in-depth knowledge of her subject, the simplicity and wit of her work is reminiscent of LS Lowry, and stylistic comparisons could also be made with the work of Mary Fedden.

Born in 1925, Ruth Burden was educated in Worcester. She studied from 1945 to 1950 at Birmingham College of Art (now Birmingham Institute of Art and Design), under Bernard Fleetwood-Walker and Katherine Fryer. She continued her training at Bath Academy, where her tutors included Terry Frost, Peter Lanyon and William Scott. The latter considered her his star pupil.

Burden taught briefly at Bath Academy, and then in Warwick and Oxford, before returning to Worcester in the 1970s to concentrate full-time on her painting. She settled in a large Georgian house, hidden behind high walls and gates. Few who passed it were aware of its existence or of the magnificent “secret” garden that she had cultivated, full of rare plants, which were a constant source of inspiration for her art. Her studio took over a whole floor of the house, stacked with canvases of still lifes, familiar local places and instantly recognisable friends.

Regular excursions into Wales fed Ruth’s imagination. She loved Tenby, where she filled sketchbooks with studies of the harbour, the people and the scenes that caught her eye. She exhibited widely throughout her career, regularly at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, the Royal West of England Academy, the New English Art Club and the Women’s International Art Club. She also loaned pictures to the Arts Council. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham has her work in its permanent collection. In 2000 she was delighted to be given a solo show at the Duncan Campbell gallery in London.

She was a fascinating and kind person, and will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege to know her.