In the Studio: Alex Russell

by on in Artists, Interviews

This month dot-art speaks to artist Alex Russell.

Alex Russell is a painter and printmaker. His process revolves around a multi-layered process of addition and subtraction. His mixed-media paintings and one-off prints are maps of their own making, visual records of routes found by the creative journey that celebrate the endless, joyful possibilities of colour, form and composition.

Can you describe your style of art?

Abstract, colourful paintings and one-off prints that celebrate the endless, joyful possibilities of colour, form and composition.

Which medium do you work with and what do you like about it specifically?

My prints are made with code and all sorts of hand-made images in a very wide range of media.
My paintings use acrylic paint, drawing and collage. In general, I like media that I can layer up, that dries quite quickly and that I’m not completely in control of.

Can you talk us through your process? Do you begin with a sketch, or do you just go straight in? How long do you spend on one piece? How do you know when it is finished?

My process starts with setting up some kind of system, typically some instructions or rules that encourage randomness within set limits.

Both my paintings and prints follow a similar path of trying to balance experiment with fine-tuning. Everything is fed with endless sketches, often plans of the work or drawings from it. There are always multiple layers; this could be making things more complex, but it’s often simplifying.

I’m trying to coax the work to tell me what to do and when it’s finished. I work on lots of different pieces at once; if I get stuck on one or can’t decide what to do, I switch to another one.

When did you begin your career in art?

I’ve always drawn and painted. When I left school, I started a degree in engineering, but very quickly realised it wasn’t what I wanted to do. I did a Foundation in Bournemouth (I’m originally from Dorset) and then went to Manchester Poly (as was) to do printed textiles. I then worked mainly as a textile designer and/or lecturer for about 30 years. I began seriously developing my one-off prints in 2012, taking the scenic route to becoming a full-time artist in 2022..

Who or what inspires your art?

I find inspiration pretty much everywhere. I’m naturally drawn to colour combinations and interesting shapes, spaces or textures. The artists that inspire me change all the time; at the moment I’m looking at Richard Diebenkorn, Ragna Bley, Tina Berning, Pieter Saenredam, Eric Ravilious and Octavia Inns.

Why is art and creativity important to you?

Despite a lot of evidence to the contrary, humans can do brilliant stuff. Our ability to be creative, to make art, write poems, play music or whatever is a vitally important celebration of the best things about humanity. I’m so lucky and grateful to know art is what I want to do and to get to do it.

What do you gain from being a member with dot-art?

Opportunities for commissions and exhibitions, plus helpful advice and being part of a community of artists.

What does it mean to be an artist in the Liverpool City Region?

It’s such a good place to be an artist. Not only are we spoilt for choice with inspiration and culture of every type round here, people are friendly, encouraging and want to help and share. There’s a supportive DIY attitude in the air I really like.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m deep in writing code for a new series of one-off prints. I’m trying to develop a modular way of doing it so I can quickly plug blocks of code into each other to experiment more intuitively with making images. Alongside this, I’m filling sketchbooks with abstract drawings that I’ll scan for the code to work with.

What was the best advice given to you as an artist?

It’s something to aspire to, rather than advice, but I’ve got a quote by William Ruskin up in the studio that I found in Richard Mabey’s book “Nature Cure“.
Describing how a bullfinch builds her nest, Ruskin says she’d use “exactly the degree of emotion, the extent of science and the command of art which are necessary for it’s happiness.”

Discover more of Alex Russell’s work on our online shop!