Description

Extended Data

Birth Place

Wickepin, WA, Australia

Biography

Painter, teacher, curator who was born in Wickepin, Western Auatralia where he grew up on the family farm. He studied at Claremont Teachers College and Perth Technical College 1949-50. He also took a Bachelor of Arts at University of Western Australia awarded in 1953. He taught at Nedlands primary school and then Perth Boys from 1949-54. He exhibited a watercolour, Winter Study, with the Perth Society of Artists in 1952. He married and had two children, but his wife Mary Elizabeth died in 1955, and having been left an annuity by an uncle he travelled overseas in 1955-6 and undertook study at Kent College, Canterbury. 1957 saw him teaching at Princess May and Perth Modern School and then he studied at East Sydney Technical School under Godfrey Miller, John Passmore and Ralph Balson, graduating with a Diploma in Fine Art in 1959. In 1960-1965 he taught in high schools and joined the Art Advisory Service of the Education Department. He won the Rupert Boan Landscape Prize in 1961. He taught drawing and painting at Perth Technical College 1966-7 and Western Australian Institute of Technology (now Curtin University) 1968-9. He spent 1970 being a fulltime painter preparing for a solo exhibition held at the Old Fire Station Gallery in Leederville. A charismatic man with a quirky sense of humour, he was generous with his students. Weekend painting and drawing excursions were held at his North Beach house in the 1960s. In the 1970s he lived in Central Australia and New Guinea. On his return he worked as an education officer at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in the 1980s. A consummate draughtsman his elegant drawings are now highly valued. He won the Sir Charles Gairdiner Hospital Prize in 1999. He continued having highly acclaimed solo exhibitions until 2008. Writers: Dr Dorothy Erickson Date written: 2010 Last updated: 2011

Born

b. 1927

Summary

Russell studied at East Sydney Technical School under Godfrey Miller, John Passmore and Ralph Balson. He won the Rupert Boan Landscape Prize in 1961 and the Sir Charles Gairdiner Hospital Prize in 1999.

Gender

Male

Died

2009

Age at death

82