Renny Russell
Renny Russell was born in 1946 in South Pasadena, California. At a young age he immersed himself in the work of Albrecht Dürer, Diego Rivera, and landscape artists Maynard Dixon, Charles M. Russell, and Albert Bierstadt. Mentor and renowned landscape painter Conrad Buff offered early instruction.
In the early 1960s, Renny attended the College of Arts and Crafts and the San Francisco Art Institute. The counterculture of the 1960s and artists Max Ernst, René Magritte, Hieronymus Bosch, and N.C. Wyeth influenced his work.
In 1969 he moved to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico, where he’s been since. His work is inspired by the myriad landscapes of the Southwest and by those things that are timeless and most free of human limitations. In the mountains, rivers, and canyons, the forces of nature and “the mystery” consume him and manifest themselves in his work.
Renny recently studied under Giovanna Paponetti at the University of New Mexico and has expanded his artistic reach, painting large abstract oils. His paintings have been purchased by writer Ed Abbey, Senator Mark Udall, and Senator Tom Udall, and can be found in many private collections throughout the Southwest. His calligraphy work graces the walls of Terry Tempest Williams, Derrick Jensen, and Jon Krakauer.
“Actually, the eloquence of the wilderness is not a pattern for human eloquence. There is no hardier fool than whoever shouts, "The scene inspired me to set pen to paper," or brush to canvas, or thumb to lyre. The wilderness inspires nothing but itself. Our babblings and scratchings resume in den and studio, whenever things resume their comfortable and incorrect proportions.”