Libby Russell

I lived out my childhood in rural Worcestershire. My love of art was never truly nourished until I hit my mid twenties. School art was pencil and paper with some impossible to get colour out block paints. But I just 'felt' I needed to paint. One day, aged 26, I said to my husband - 'look what I've done'. There in front of him was a red rectangle on a blue rectangle - painted onto the back of an old clip frame board! I hadn't heard of Mark Rothko - but it was basically an extreme amateur version of such. I continued to paint absolute madness - whatever I dreamt of - imagined etc - with no idea how to paint. Eventually I decided I really needed to know a bit more and enrolled in the Open University Arts course. This is where I was lucky enough to meet the exceptional and wonderful Oliver Warman ROI, RBA. Sadly he is no longer with us - but he taught me everything from rabbit skin glue on the board (I don't use it!) to how to 'squint' to see the tones. I remember once he took me to a ditch and said - 'There, paint that'. I looked at him in disbelief - 'You're kidding right'. 'Get on with it girl'. He was a Colonel in the army and knew how to order the troops! But I did find colour and tone in that ditch - and there was a lesson learnt...

Open College of Arts
PGdip Printing and Publishing (London College of Art)
2.1 BA (hons) Philosophy and Literature (University of Hertfordshire)
Foundation Art (Oxford Brookes University)
Wycliffe College
Alice Ottley School

Curator and exhibitor of the Kirtlington Art Exhibition
Discerning Eye Exhibtion, Mall Galleries, London,
OCA Sasha Young Prize - Bankside Gallery, London
Bromsgrove Festival
Solo exhibition in aid of Cancer Research
Artist residency, Art Lodge, Toronto, Canada