Robert Rutherford - biography

Rutherford's interest in art began at Trinity College School, while under the instruction of David Blackwood. He was awarded scholarships to study at the Banff School of Fine Arts and the Ontario College of Art and Design where he studied printmaking with Frederick Hagen. He also spent a year in France, studying at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts d'Avignon.

Robert Rutherford has spent the past thirty-five years developing his distinctive style of Maritime images. His works are characterized by:

"a lot of wonderful curved movement, powerful, animated lines and dramatic skies." *

He selects the best drawings to work into silk-screens in his studio.

* from "Going indoors, outdoors with the Rutherford’s" Elissa Barnard
(The Mail Star.)

His most recent solo exhibition of silkscreens titled A Geography of Nova Scotia opened August 2011 at Harvest Gallery in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. He and Kath exhibited together in the show titled Time and Place at Secord Gallery, Halifax, NS (2009). In September 2004 an exhibition of large acrylic landscape painting titled Collective Experience was shown at the Houston North Gallery in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. He has also participated in many group shows, including; Hidden Values: Atlantic Corporations Collect and Art Expo ’94 both at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and at Gallery Gabor in Toronto. His work was included in the Visual Arts Nova Scotia juried biennial exhibition, Far and Wide, in 1994 and 1996.

The Nova Scotia Department of Education produced an instructional film about the silk-screen process featuring Robert Rutherford and his work. He has produced two stop-motion films in which his art plays a major role.

Solo shows include:

• A Geography of Nova Scotia, Harvest Gallery, Wolfville, NS
• Time and Place, Secord Gallery, Halifax, NS
• Collective Experience, Houston North Gallery, Lunenburg, NS
• Paintings from Drawings, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Art Sales and Rental, Halifax, NS
• Local Colour, Craig Gallery at Alderney Landing, Dartmouth, NS
• Landmark, Dartmouth Heritage Museum, Dartmouth, NS.
• Tom Thompson Memorial Gallery, Owen Sound, Ontario
• University of Toronto.

He is represented in corporate and private collections across the country, among them:

• Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
• Nova Scotia Art Bank.
• Royal Military College.
t University of Toronto.

Robert’s work can be found at the following Atlantic galleries:

•     At the Sign of the Whale, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
•     Secord Gallery, Halifax, Nova Scotia
•     Art Sales and Rental Gallery, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax
•     Lyghtesome Gallery, Antigonish, Nova Scotia
•     Fog Forest Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick
•     Harvest Gallery, Wolfville, Nova Scotia
•     Ewing Gallery, Corner Brook, Newfoundland
•     Waters’ Edge Gallery, Baddeck, Nova Scotia
•     Visual Voice Gallery, Truro, Nova Scotia
•     Power House Art Gallery, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

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Kath Kornelsen Rutherford & Robert Rutherford, 544 West Petpeswick Road, Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia, Canada B0J 2L0
Telephone: (902) 889-3344 Email: prints@ns.sympatico.ca
© 2018