Ruth VanSickle Ford

She credited artists George Bellows, who influenced her interest in social realism, and John Carlson, who founded the School of Landscape Painting in Woodstock, New York, with helping her to develop her talent.

A book has been written about her entitled Warm Light, Cool Shadows: The Life and Art of Ruth Van Sickle Ford.

[6] She continued studying art and credited the influences of teachers John Carlson, founder of the School of Landscape Painting in Woodstock, New York, and social realist George Bellows.

[2] She married civil engineer Albert (Sam) Ford in 1918 in a military ceremony in Houston, Texas.

In 1918 Ruth traveled while pregnant to visit a relative in Utah and gave birth while on the trip to their only child, Barbara.

[3] Ford herself recounted how people would peer in the windows at the most inopportune moments, such as the day she stepped out from a bath only to find several ladies observing her through the glass.

It was a balloon-like structure with walls made of coal and chunks of colored glass that had an open interior floor plan.

[3][8][9] In April 1951 it was described as a "Hollywood fantasy" and a "fine spangling lustrous toy" by the Architectural Forum magazine.

[10] Tired of the attention that their home received, in 1961 they sold it and moved to a conventional ranch house a few blocks away.

She exhibited her work throughout the United States and the Caribbean islands, garnering numerous awards, including some very prestigious gold and silver medals.

[2][13] In 1947 an exhibition was held at the Grand Central Art Galleries entitled Watercolors of Mexico by Ruth Van Sickle Ford.

In 1937 she purchased the school with money borrowed from friends during the Great Depression and became its president and Director.