CONTEMPORARY IMPRESSIONST:

 From the French Atlantic coast of South Brittany where France Ruhnke was born and raised, to the Pacific coast of Carmel, California where she now resides, France’s journey has unwaveringly travelled through her expression of artistic talents and creativity.

She was always drawn to art and learning new crafts. Throughout her life, she studied the arts of drawing, painting, watercolor, photography, sculpture, pottery, custom framing, mosaics, upholstery and sewing. She also studied engineering and started her career in Paris designing offshore platforms.

After nine years spent in Paris she moved back to the quiet seaside and shallow waters of her hometown Carnac in South Brittany to raise her two children and founded her Interior Design firm and Fine Art Mosaic Studio. During this time, she completed over 120 high end residential and commercial projects featuring her own mosaics creations.

In 2010 she furthered her education at the Paris American Academy to earn her international BA in Interior Design and in 2012 moved to the U.S. Throughout her explorations of California she fell in love with Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula where she met her husband local Architect Henry Ruhnke. 

France has been devoting her artwork to oil painting since 2015. She finds inspiration in the merging of French and American cultures as well as the mix of seaside and countryside. She incorporates in her art her intimate perspective and joy for colors, light, movement, shapes, textures, and her approach to reality as an Interior Designer. She enjoys rendering her sensibility to nature’s effects of light on both indoor and outdoor scapes. Her paintings reflect her attention to elegance and composition. She loves studying still-lives, ceramics, draped textiles, landscapes, seascapes, waters, animals, architecture and incorporates in some collections some canvas made 3D elements such as butterflies and flowers.

‘’Painting has become a need in my life because it peacefully opens my vision even more everyday to the poetic beauty that surrounds us.’’

Besides the Venture Gallery in Monterey, CA, France’s artwork is also exhibited at The Nicholson Gallery in Atlanta, GA as well at the Cafe Dal Mare in Carmel-By-The-Sea, CA and the Carmel Valley Art Association in Carmel Valley, CA.

France now lives in Carmel Valley where she built her farm and residence ‘Plumes Farm’ with Henry and enjoys growing their organic produces and taking care of their animals. She is building her new art studio on the farm to fully devote herself to her art and enjoy the pleasures of their meaningful lifestyle.