Sula Rubens

Sula Rubens ARWS

Since graduating from Central/St. Martin’s School of Art in 1989, I have practiced as a painter and printmaker. I have lived, worked and exhibited in many cities including Amsterdam in Holland, Gdansk in Poland,St. Petersburg in Russia as well as the rural landscapes of France, Spain, Greece and Ireland. Often travelling to paint, I have immersed myself in various landscapes, buildings and their people. I have collaborated with artists, poets and musicians nationally and internationally. Wherever I am, close observation through drawing is integral to my work. In 2014 I was appointed first ever Artist in Residence at the Michaelhouse in Cambridge. Other residency appointments include the Lookout Tower in Aldeburgh, Potton Hall Classical Recording Studio/Concert Hall in Suffolk and the Westerkerk in Amsterdam.

In 2019, I was elected Associate Member of The Royal Watercolour Society. My work has been awarded numerous prizes and is represented in public and private collections in this country and abroad including the Leicestershire Collection for Schools and Colleges, the Town Council of Amsterdam and the National Pastime Museum, USA. I exhibit regularly and I am currently based on the east coast of UK.

Since five years, I have been making a series with the working title of Kin. It is a series I felt compelled to make and is about the current displacement of many people and the sadness of being away from one’s own country, former security and civilization. People are the primary focus of Kin. Although there is no direct reference in the works to the displacement and suffering of refugees, some of the people portrayed, are displaced, struggling to survive and protect their kin. They are transient figures moving through spaces I create for them on canvas, maps or book pages. In some works, sky, land, sea, maps or buildings show through their painted and drawn forms. I portray them outside, vulnerable to the sea and the sky and sometimes with mountains in the distance, carrying a sense of the faraway lands from which they might have travelled. There are moments of fun and pathos: children with their animals or playing despite desperate circumstances; and above all, people caring for each other, recognising their kinship in adversity.

Education

1986-89 Central/St. Martin's School of Art: B.A.(Hons) in Fine Art (Painting) Dissertation: Education of the Artist & Art Education

1993 International Teacher Training Institute, International House, London: RSA/UCLES Certificate in TEFLA (Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Adults)

Languages

German, French, Dutch

Solo Exhibitions

2018 Kin Mandell’s Gallery , Norwich

2014 Michaelhouse Residency Exhibition, Cambridge

2013 Residency Exhibition of paintings to accompany Jean-Efflam Bavouzet's concert performance, Potton Hall, Suffolk

2012 South Lookout Tower Residency Exhibition, Caroline Wiseman Modern & Contemporary, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

2011 'Pictures at an Exhibition' Installation of work to accompany Libor Novocek's concert performance at Potton Hall, Suffolk

2004 Halesworth Gallery, Suffolk

2004 Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge

2003 The School House Gallery, Wighton, Norfolk

2001 North House Gallery, Manningtree, Essex

1995 'Through Gdansk', Halesworth Gallery, Suffolk

1994 'Mens en Interieur', Museum of Hertogenbosch, Holland

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021 Shortlisted for The Alpine Fellowship Prize - ‘Wilderness & Civilization’
‘Drawn to the Line’ Piers Feetham Gallery, London
Royal Watercolour Society Bankside Gallery, London
‘Out of the Blue’ Gallery East, Woodbridge. Collaborated with poet Sue Wallace-Shaddad

2020 Shortlisted for the Castlegate Prize, Castlegate House Gallery, Cockermouth, Cumbria
‘People & Places’ Gallery East, Woodbridge, Suffolk
‘Borders’ Firstsite Gallery, Colchester, Essex
Regular exhibitor with Royal Watercolour Society, Bankside Gallery, London

2019 Elected as Associate Member of The Royal Watercolour Society (A.R.W.S.)
Gallery East, Woodbridge, Suffolk Stillness
Mandell’s Gallery, Norwich
Selected for the Contemporary Watercolour Competition Exhibition Bankside Gallery, London

2017 Seeing through Drawing - A Celebration of John Berger, Mandell’s Gallery, Norwich
Exhibition of the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize 2017, Piano Nobile Kings Place
‘Casey at the Bat’ commission for the National Pastime Museum, USA
Burgh House, Hampstead, London

2016 'A Figurative Presence' Mandell's Gallery, Norwich Hamburg Altonale, Germany

2014 Ghosts of Gone Birds Project, London & Aldeburgh Fry Gallery, Saffron Walden, Essex (since 2003)

2013 Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall
Mandell's Gallery, Norwich
v Cambridge City Art Fair (Mandell's Gallery)
Belgrave St. Ives, Cornwall

2010 RE + New, Woodbridge, Suffolk

2009 The School House Gallery, Wighton, Norfolk

2008 Halesworth Festival – invited artist, The Cut, Halesworth, Suffolk

2007 Angela Mellor Gallery, Ely

2005 Piers Feetham Gallery, London

2003 East of England Women in Art, Peter Pears Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

2002 Babylon Gallery, Ely,

2000 Primavera Gallery, Cambridge

1999 The Loftus Collection, Cinema Gallery, Aldeburgh, Suffolk 'Air' (site specific sculpture – commissioned for Aldeburgh Marshes)

1998 Heffers Gallery, Cambridge

1997 'An English Perspective', Blue Hall Gallery, Union of Russian Artists, St. Petersburg 'On the Border', Firstsite Gallery, The Minories, Colchester

1996 'Drawings for All', Gainsborough House, Sudbury Aemstelle Museum, Amstelveen, Holland

1995 Beatrice Royal Contemporary Art Gallery

1993 'Europe Prize for Painting Exhibition', Ostend, Belgium De Krabbedans Centrum voor Beeldende Kunst

1991-93 The Leicestershire Exhibition for Schools and Colleges, Beaumanor Hall, Loughborough

1990 The Laing Collection Exhibition – toured nationally

1989 'Artist 89', London Contemporary Arts, Chelsea Harbour, London

Residencies, Workshops & Education

2014 Artist in Residence, The Michaelhouse, Trinity St. Cambridge

2012 Artist in Residence, South Lookout Tower, Aldeburgh Beach, Suffolk

2010 – 17 Artist in Residence, Potton Hall Classical Recording Studio /Concert Hall, Suffolk

1998 Aldeburgh Poetry Festival.
Collaborated as a visual artist in a workshop with Poet in Residence, Paul Hyland

1997-98 'A Corner of South Suffolk' Community Collage Project, funded by the National Lottery
Artist in Residence – appointed to co-ordinate the project and run related workshops involving members of the community from primary to pension age. An exhibition of the work toured the villages after being displayed at The Museum of East Anglian Life .

1996/7/9 Community Workshop S.C.S. Aldeburgh
Ran one day environmental workshops with the theme 'Sculpture on the Beach'

1996-97 'A Russian/English Perspective'
One of seven selected British artists who collaborated to organize and raise sponsorship for an exchange programme with six artists from St Petersburg. Both groups of artists visited and participated in workshops, lectures and exhibitions in each others' countries.

1999 - 2011 Belstead House
Visiting tutor – giving courses to adults in various aspects of painting and drawing

1996 - 2005 Flatford Mill, Field Study Centre
Visiting tutor – ran courses in drawing and painting for all ages, including families.

1996 - 2009 Suffolk College
Associate tutor in painting and drawing

1994-5 Polytechnic, Gdansk, Poland
Visiting Artist – ran painting/drawing and monoprint workshops with young adults

1992 Westerkerk, Amsterdam
Artist in Residence – 2 month project, making work responding to the church interior

Painting Travel

1999 -2001 Ireland - painting trips (1 and 2 months)

1994-95 Lived and painted in Gdansk,Poland

1992-93 Lived and painted in Amsterdam, Holland

1992 Lived and painted in Dordogne, France (4 months)

1990/91 Northern Spain & the Spanish Pyrenees - painting trips (3 months)

1988 Greece/Turkey – painting trip (3 months)

Awards/Prizes

1995 The Beatrice Royal Contemporary Art National Competition,'The Sea', 2nd Prize
Prince's Trust grant awarded for research
Awarded grant by The Foundation for Sports and the Arts

1992 The Winsor and Newton/Young Watercolourist Award

1991 The New English Art Club/Marks & Spencer Award, 3rd Prize

1989/90/91 The Anna Airy Memorial Award for Painting, 1st Prize

1990 Europe Prize for Painting - finalist

Public Collections

The Leicestershire Collection for Schools and Colleges
The Town Council of Amsterdam, BKB Dienst Musea voor Moderne Kunst, Holland
The National Pastime Museum, USA
Museum Markiezenhof, Bergen op Zoom, Holland
Works in collections & on loan from Art Libraries: Amsterdam, Arnhem, Eindhoven,
Leeuwarden, Zwolle, Amstelveen, Bergen op Zoom, Holland
The Royal Watercolour Society Diploma Collection

Publications

The Jackdaw - Easel Words - Independent Views on the Visual Arts (No. 155 Jan/Feb 2021

Who’s Who in Art - Artists in Britain since 1945 , David Buckman (2006)