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Even as a child, Ruth Walker wanted to be a famous artist.

That desire came from deep within. And, with that desire, came God’s blessing.

“I’m not a famous artist,” Walker said with a smile. “But God did bless me with the love of and appreciation for life whether it’s human, plants or animals.  He blessed me with an appreciation for art and the ability to create. My art is inspired by God’s gifts.”

Walker works in different mediums – pencil, ink, watercolor, acrylic and oil. She paints “anything and everything” and especially everything in and around the place she calls home – Pike County.

“I just love to paint and everywhere I look there is something for me to paint,” Walker said “I paint old homesteads, buildings and portraits, especially of children. Everyone has a special character that needs to be captured.  However, I am also inspired by everything – flowers and fruits and birds and butterflies.

And Walker said, with a smile, that everything she paints is a portrait – “yes, even a building.”

Walker’s garden is her inspiration.

There, in the quietness, she absorbs the beauty of her surroundings and is inspired by God’s gifts, freely given.

Walker received inspiration for the painting of the garden angel, tenderly coupling a beautiful red bird while standing among the beauty the artist’s own flower garden.

Walker’s inspiration does come from God’s gifts.

“There is beauty all around us,” Walker said. “The flowers blooming along the roadside, the weathered wood of an aging barn, a horse grazing in the pasture. All God’s world has beauty for us to enjoy and appreciate.”