archived gallery shows
Searching for a Horizon
A Solo Exhibition by Rutie Borthwick
Inspired by photographs and sketches taken on her walks through London, her travels and found images, Rutie Borthwick is ‘Searching for a Horizon’.
Her work depicts figures painted with clear definition, either in isolation within a colourful landscape or grouped together on a sparse background.
The artist describes how “There is a moment when one is observing people in nature, when they ‘become part of the landscape’, they melt into the space and the eye sees them as ‘one’ with the view.” This exhibition is about this moment.
The figures in the artist’s work communicate a sense of where they are through their posture and interaction with the space they are in. They are placed like rhythmical staves in music, geometrically creating their own ‘composition’. Lost in thought within their own world, every so often one looks out at the viewer as if through a glass wall or window.
The title of the exhibition alludes to the constant search for a horizon. When one paints on a round surface the boundaries are different, any line across the space becomes a horizon, it defines the space immediately ‘placing’ the composition.
A Chelsea graduate, Borthwick has exhibited both in solo and group shows internationally. Her studio in London Bridge is where she creates her paintings in a traditional practice and works on commissions.