Artist Statement:
“I strive to endow my paintings with visual existence, vibrancy, and life. I want my subjects- whether people, places, or leaves- to speak loudly with voices that are clear and free. I do not want to copy nature but recreate it! If my paintings move people with passion, happiness, even melancholy or sadness, I am on the right path.” Monika Ruiz
MONIKA RUIZ is a Colombian artist who has resided both in England and the United States. She is a successful fine-artist with a concentration in painting. She has exhibited and sold her artwork around the world. For over twenty years Monika has been teaching children, teenagers and adults how to develop their creative art skills. Monika Ruiz is the founder and teacher of The Creative Child Art Time, an art program held at IPS in Atlanta and at private residences per appointment. In addition, Monika Ruiz founded and teaches SPANISH IS FUN!!!, an After School program held at Springdale Park Elementary School (SPARK) in Atlanta and is the Spanish teacher at the International Preschool (IPS). She also teaches a Summer Camp language program.
Born in Colombia, Monika Ruiz began her art education at the age of fourteen. Her foundational studies focused on traditional art history, particularly figure drawing and still life. Her paintings recall the bright colors and evocative brush strokes of Fauvist and Post-Impressionist paintings, as well as the expansive and dreamlike quality of early Surrealist paintings.
In “Yin Yang,” two figures curl around the perimeter of camellia flower, becoming its outermost petals in a spiraling embrace.
“Holding the Sun” forgoes the figure and disrupts conventional horizons with rainbow-colored leaves crowding the foreground.
Whether explicitly narrative or abstract, Ruiz’s paintings evoke a sense of time’s passing and its affect on the natural world.
Visit her online Art Gallery to see her works, purchase a reproduction, a painting or commission a Portrait, or a painting based in an experience that you have had, your family or something that you love. Storytelling makes up a big part in her art. She has created series and individual paintings based on stories of her friends and her own Fairy Tales like about a boy, Jay, and his dog, Boo, who travel the universe searching for wisdom and a companion for Boo.
If you would like to purchase a painting, have a question, make a comment, or would like to commission a work of art, please email Monika Ruiz at info@monikaruiz.com