Ruth Pilkington Hon Sen ROI (1924 – 2025)
Born in Manchester, Ruth joined the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) at the age of 17 during the Second World War. She was stationed in Colombo (modern Sri Lanka where she worked on the interception and decoding of enemy signals from Japan, for analysis at Bletchley Park. From here, Ruth’s wartime service took her to India, where she married in 1945.
After the war, Ruth moved to South Africa, where she attended Johannesburg Technical College from 1947 to 1948. In 1960 Ruth returned to Britain and studied Fine Art at Macclesfield College of Further Education from 1962 to 1965.
Ruth drew inspiration for her paintings from several sources. As well as the coastlines, green countryside and twisting lanes of her adopted home in Jersey, memories of her life in South Africa were also constant themes in her work. Ruth was also inspired by her travels to Europe and she painted prolifically from themes gathered in Greece. The olive trees of Corfu and Crete in particular led Ruth into using mixed-media and etching alongside oils.
Ruth worked mostly using oil paints, and for the vast majority of her career she always painted in the open air. Ruth always preferred painting directly onto canvas, using a quick underpainting of a single colour wash to capture the tones of quickly changing light and tidal conditions. She usually completed the painting at home in her studio, using photographs to remind her of various colour changes and sea levels.
Over the course of her career, Ruth exhibited widely with many major art societies, including Manchester Academy of Fine Arts , the Salon International des Beaux Arts in Paris, the United Society, the Royal Society of British Artists and the Hesketh Hubbard Art Society.
In 1985 Ruth was made an Honorary Member of the Society of Women artists and, after moving to live in Grouville, Jersey, she was elected an Honorary Member of the Jersey Society of Artists. Ruth was also a finalist in the 1971 Hunting Art Prize.
In 1976, Ruth put on her first solo exhibition in Jersey, and she went on to exhibit in the island on many more occasions throughout the following decades. In 1988 Jersey Heritage commissioned Ruth to create a painting to mark the flooding of Queen’s valley, and this work is in their permanent art collection.
Ruth exhibited for over three decades with the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. She was elected a Full Member in 1976, and an Honorary Senior Member in 2020.
Examples of work
