Colin Ruffell was born in London in 1939. He became a professional artist at 26 after studying painting, design and printmaking at Hornsey and Portsmouth Colleges. He is the founder of several art groups including Artists in Action and Fiveways Artist Group. He paints in explosive bursts punctuated by long spells of preparations or recovery from the last effort.
Colin Ruffell has exhibited in; England, Scotland, Wales, Sweden, Germany, Holland, U.S.A., Canada, Japan, Venezuela, and Australia, plus works in private and corporate collections worldwide.
He likes cooking, drinking, eating, playing with his grandchildren, and talking about the archeo-psychic ego state or biological determinism, and he also goes bird watching.
Colin Ruffell has been a pioneer of changing techniques for artists. In the early sixties he was one of the first British art-students to use the then revolutionary medium of artists acrylic paint, and he has been a consistent advocate ever since. In the nineties he spotted the potential of giclee printmaking, and the Internet as exhibition space. His enthusiasm led The Fine Art Trade Guild to elect him firstly as a Court Member and then as Chair of The Guilds Printers and Publishers Committee, and in 2008 the Guild chose him to be 'The Master of The Guild', where he is involved in setting worldwide standards for the fine art industry.