Jennifer Rugge
words by: Judie Rae
Art that honors the Earth:
Nevada City artist Jennifer Rugge’s desire to protect the environment led her on a journey to move away from the use of manufactured oil and acrylic paints, which contain toxins. She calls herself an earth artist. “I create works that reflect Nature and the communities evolving from this awareness. I use organic and non-toxic materials called natural mineral paints on hand-made papers over wood.”
Jennifer often hikes our local hills in search of pigments, minerals and clay deposits she turns into her own paints. She mixes natural softened beeswax and walnut oil into pulverized earth pigments to create her colors. (For the interested, Jennifer occasionally offers workshops on how to process pigment and minerals to create non-toxic paints.)
The processes of creating environmentally-safe art “engage the self with the earth and to the Art,” says Jennifer. Her art then “takes on a significant connection with the land and its creator.”
Rugge says that even as a kindergartner she knew she wanted to be an artist. In those days her works were created with chalk and crayons and watercolors. A fifth- grade teacher offered inspiration by playing music for his class, handing out paper and asking his students to draw what they heard. Her art developed from there.
In 2005 Jennifer and her family moved to Europe and lived there for over six years. It was in Italy where she took art classes and was introduced to the practice of creating pigment mixtures. When she returned to the US, she wanted to continue her work using earth-friendly methods. This led her to a deeper study of European cave art and the methods they used to make paints; her work today reflects her passion for the ancient art with a contemporary flair. She shares that “cave artists knew 3-D perspective,” something we may not notice when viewing prehistoric cave drawings. She also has traveled to the Australian outback to study rock and cave art and signs of the Aborigines
The ancient roots of language are another interest of Jennifer’s; she feels it connects her present art with the prehistoric past. To that end, Jennifer incorporates ancient symbols into her art, especially Hebraic pictographic writing.
Jennifer’s latest award for her art came at the 2025 Wild and Scenic Film Festival, where, as an art exhibitor, she won "Best of Theme Award" for her painting “In a Purple Universe”, which honors this year’s festival's theme "Wild at Heart".
To view Jennifer’s art, and to learn more about her process, you can contact her through Instagram @jenniferruggefineart or website, jenniferrugge.com. You can also reach her at ruggej@aol.com.
This story originally appeared in the February 15th, 2025 edition of the GVNC Culture Connection newsletter.