AN Archives: Andrée Ruellan
Andrée Ruellan (1905–2006) was a trailblazing American artist who left an impressive legacy. Her works depict everyday objects that bring the beauty of the mundane into focus. Her masterful compositions used color and light to express the energy, movement and humanity she observed around her. Ruellan was featured in the October 1943 issue of American Artist, sharing her painting process, philosophy and driving force behind her work. Here are three key takeaways from this trailblazing artist.
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Painting Philosophy. Ruellan is described as an objective painter interested in the color and vibrancy of everyday life. For her, artists hold an important space in society, as exemplified by this quote: “Naturally I want to paint well-designed pictures, but I also wish to convey these warmer human emotions. No Ivory Tower—I feel strongly that the artist is an important member of society, and he should do his part to build a world where war and poverty, as well as racial discrimination, are impossible. I want as good a technique as possible, but only for the purpose of expressing clearly, yet with subtlety, what I feel about life. My work can be no better than I am myself as a person, and no deeper than my understanding of life as a whole. It is true that I paint some landscapes and still lifes, but from the earliest drawings, my deepest interest has been and is for people, at work or at play. It seems to me that it is in the most normal surrounding—a subway entrance, a marketplace or on the street—that one finds the unexpected in situation and aspect.”
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Palette. She worked with an extensive palette consisting of Naples yellow, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium red, alizarin crimson (very little), coerulium blue, cobalt blue, ultramarine blue, oxide of chromium opaque, viridian green, vine black, ivory black, yellow ochre, Mars yellow, burnt Italian earth, caput mortuum, burnt sienna, Mars brown, transparent brown and Cremnitz white.
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Process. She brought with her a small sketchbook that was filled with sketches drawn from life that capture the impressions and details of daily life. These sketches informed her larger studio pieces. In the studio, her work began with a preliminary pencil sketch on large papers, experimenting with composition and details that could advance the narrative of the image. The next step was a 16×20-inch gouache color study. The final painting began with a light charcoal drawing, followed by light washes that approximate the color scheme of the final work. The darkest darks and lightest lights were ignored in this initial wash and gradually emerged throughout the process. She paid particular attention to the transparency of her paints, strategically allowing the initial wash to show through subsequent layers in some areas to contrast against other more opaque layers being established.
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