(Untitled)

Ruth Burgess was born in Sydney in 1932. She studied painting with Desiderius Orban in 1954, the same year she graduated from the University of Sydney with a degree in Arts/ Music. She was introduced to woodcuts in 1976, which she studied with Sue Buckley at the Workshop Arts Centre, Willoughby 1976-69 where she later taught from 1984-93. She has been a prominent member of the Sydney Printmakers since the 1980s.

Burgess has been profoundly influenced by China, especially its painting and calligraphy, as well as Buddhism. In 1988 she travelled to China where she met local artists and spent time at the Central Art Academy, which caused a radical re-think of her own art practices. In following years she revisited China on several occasions to work and exhibit.

Forests are a recurring and central theme of her work. Since the 2000s, her work has become much more intimate in scale and reflecting a tradition of Australian wood engraving embodied most notably in the work of Lionel Lindsay and more contemporary practitioners including Rosalind Atkins, Edwina Ellis and Tim Jones