Upper Cape Codder -- November 7, 2001

An Artist for All Seasons

by Deborah J. Carr

Seasonal shifts are important to Doug Rugh. A landscape, portrait and still life painter, Rugh is an artist for whom a sense of time is as important as a sense of place.

As winter approaches, he shifts from his plein air painting to portraits and still lifes in his studio. Both psychologically and artistically, his response to seasonal variability is as much about time, mood and style as location.

Combining the methods, techniques and discipline of the Old Masters with an Impressionist sense of light, his paintings embody deep perspective and illusionistic techniques. They reveal the integrity, expertise and mastery of an artist who believes the beauty of abstraction is the specificity of detail. Rugh's work is not about the exact representation of the obvious, rather his paintings are meditations on the complex.

Rugh, who is currently exhibiting his work at the Cataumet Arts Center, appreciates the visual impact and emotional appeal of particular locations, but admits he is interested in the fluidity of the environment and the accumulation of changes that occur while painting on location.

Many of his favorite areas – Quisset Harbor, Nobska, Cataumet, Little Island, Woods Hole – are familiar to Cape audiences. However, he frequently focuses on an area segment, a particular detail, or object within the grandeur and gracefulness of the surrounding environment: a rocking chair on a porch, a cardinal perched on a wrought iron fence, a barrier marker on a bike path, a rock configuration on a beach.

He has also painted on Lake of Bays in Muskaka, Canada, north of Toronto.

"A view in Canada is looking through things," says Rugh commenting on the tall trees, and thick forestation, rather than the scrub pines and sweeping vistas on the Cape.

"One landscape is not more beautiful than the other," he says. "There are different things going on up there; different arrangements in the environment.

"A master of light, shade, texture and density, the interaction of the elements is as appealing to him as the visual impact of a particular landscape. It is the unexpected — the variability of light, the movement of fog — that appeals to him, rather than the "photographic" appeal of a location.

"Some people love cars, and how they are engineered," says Rugh. "What interests me is the quality of light, how shadows soften; forms turn."

As he discusses the seasonal variations of his genre preferences, he conveys his interest in the immediacy of plein air painting, as well as the static nature of the still life.

"When I'm painting outdoors, I try to segment," says Rugh, who admits that it can be overwhelming for an artist to observe, or try to capture everything that's going on in the environment.

Nevertheless he prefers to observe the environmental changes rather than relying on the freeze frame of a photograph.

"If I work from a photograph I feel as if I'm making things up."

A master of composition and expression, his interior paintings are about a shift in mood and sensibility as well as season.

"Outdoors there is so much to choose from," says Rugh. "With a still life, you can see more."

His interior painting provides the opportunity for contemplation and consideration. In the studio, which he views as a controlled environment, he has the luxury of scrutinizing the interactions of form, shape and color.

In keeping with the tradition and skill of the Old Masters, his still lifes, which are depictions of timeless moments, have an inner integrity and stimulate moments of reverie. The orderliness of arrangement and sense of calm — a teacup at the corner of a table, a bowl of blueberries, a glass of wine — are about memory, silence and intimacy. In his still lifes, there is the suggestion that life lingers in the objects we save or arrange.

A conversation with Rugh is not about the glib, the facile, or the obvious. His observations and responses to inquiries about style, and artistic preferences are measured and thoughtful. One has the feeling that the reductionism of an "artist's statement" would be a torment for him. His respect for complexity and detail preclude the trivial or superficial.

The son of a Foreign Service officer and anthropologist, Rugh grew up in the Middle East. It was there that he developed an appreciation for the intricate fluency in the woodwork, tile, marble, pottery and mosaic craftsmanship found throughout the region.

"The marketplaces were so visually interesting," says Rugh, who has an exquisite eye for detail.

As a teenager, he apprenticed to artisans in Cairo, where he learned traditional woodworking skills. He later studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art; and at the Schuler School of Fine Arts, Baltimore, Maryland, an atelier that specializes in training students in the classical tradition. He mastered the technical aspects of each discipline as well as the grinding of powder pigments, and preparation of painting surfaces. A traditionalist, as well as a perfectionist, he makes his own paints, grinds his own pigments and experiments constantly with glazes.

After completing his degree at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), he worked for a design firm in Boston. He then served a stint as a free-lance illustrator, before deciding to paint full-time three years ago.

"When you're younger, you're afraid to commit yourself to painting full-time, but now that I've done it, I wish I had made the commitment earlier," Rugh says.

He says he's self-motivated and can be quite productive working by himself, but admits, "It's a struggle, and you have to be totally committed to doing it."

He emphasizes that although he enjoys working alone; he now arranges his schedule to paint regularly with other artists. It has been an opportunity to share models, ideas and companionship.

Rugh has roots on the Cape, both of his grandfathers were scientists with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole. He says that it's been important for him to be connected to other artists in the same community where he now lives and paints.

Speaking of his current exhibition, which includes still lifes, portraits and landscapes painted in Canada and on the Cape, Rugh sees it as being fortuitously in sync with the seasons.

"It's nice to have a show this time of year" Rugh says. "It's the end of a segment."

Doug Rugh web site