Her work as a silhouettist featured in 2005 on a major Portland TV network. She has cut silhouettes at diverse venues throughout New England including the Maine Historical Society and and the Farnsworth Art Museum.

Monsell began cutting silhouettes in 1979. She was creating traditional charcoal and pastel portraits in Huntington, New York, mostly from live 30 to 45 minute sittings, but the competition was stiff. Realizing she had seen no artist cutting silhouettes in many years, she began practicing on her husband and children. Immediately she had an overwhelmingly enthusiastic response to her freehand cut work, simple profiles in black paper, and has since enjoyed helping keep alive a centuries-old art form.

Over the years, Monsell has worked as an English teacher and in telecommunication sales, cutting silhouettes for profit just a few times a year. She left teaching and corporate sales behind in 2002, shortly after moving to Maine. Her new home gave her studio space and the opportunity to pursue art full-time.

She's been working ever since, painting in oils and pastels and cutting silhouettes. Her work is so highly regarded that she's been invited to work weddings, corporate events and, aboard Royal Caribbean cruse ships. She often does events for historical societies, which appreciate the tradition of the art form.

Monsell is the only professional silhouette artist in Maine. She knows of only a handful in the entire country. She creates well over a thousand profiles a year, about half from life, the rest through her website, Artful Heirlooms.com.

"I regularly meet people who say they've been looking for a silhouette artist for years," she commented.

Ruth welcomes portrait commissions in pastel, oil, charcoal, and conte. She strives for portraits that not only achieve an excellent likeness, but capture the spark of the individual's personality and spirit, whether the subject be a small child or a grandparent.

She finds painting children a particular joy, especially capturing candid moments in time in a child's life. With children, she works primarily from photographs, many from her own photo shoots. Subjects are often painted at play, exploring, or resting, or interacting with a parent or a pet.

The artist adds, "With my own children grown, I appreciate how fleeting and precious childhood is. There is a quality of total absorption I see in children that I love to portray. I particularly like painting subjects outdoors, surrounded by nature and bathed in sunshine. Like the impressionist painters who have always been my inspiration, I find the effects of light and shadow fascinating and moving."

The artist additionally welcomes the special challenge of posthumous portraiture, adding, "Since 1980, when I was asked to paint a 14-year-old boy who had died, I have had the honor of being selected to paint numerous lost loved ones. I've always found that the happiness and comfort such a painting can give to the family is extremely rewarding. I learn as much as I can about the deceased, and work from one or numerous photos to capture the subject as fully as possible."