A retrospective of Russell Kent’s art at Berninneit features his distinctive style: high realism with
a touch of humour, surrealism and romance. Above: Looking for the Tiger.
a touch of humour, surrealism and romance. Above: Looking for the Tiger.
By Josephine Allen
WHEN I met Russell Kent in Perth in 1978, we were two eastern staters ... I was doing my final year at secondary teachers’ college and Russell had come west from Phillip Island and Melbourne to fulfill his itch for art and travel. He was living the life of an artist.
It wasn’t the life that had been mapped out for him. Born in the Cowes Hospital on 31 May 1954, he was a fourth-generation descendant of a Dalyston farmer and the first son of three to Jean and George Kent, bulldozer contractors. He spent his formulative and schooling years in Wonthaggi. When Russell was thirteen his parents bought the Anchorage General store in Ventnor and the family came to live on Phillip Island.
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Although Russell was streamed towards the sciences at school, he harboured a love for art. This was fostered and his innate talent brought out by Ventnor artist Reg Langslow. Reg’s ideals in art were old school in that he believed in a high technical standard, coupled with a romantic passion.
Russell completed the first year of science at Monash University before the itch for art and travel won out. He moved to WA where he spent the next five years living in studios and disused offices in Perth and Fremantle. He lived in proximity with other artists and breathed in the artist’s life. |
Looking for the Tiger, an exhibition of selected art works over four decades by Russell Kent, is showing at Berninneit, Cowes from November 15 to 24. Open Monday-Friday, 9.30am-5pm, weekends 10am-4pm. More of Russell’s works can be seen on the Island Influence website. |
Apart from life drawing classes at James Street Technical College, Russell prided himself on the freedom that the self-taught have and developed a distinctive style: high realism with a touch of humour, surreal, and the romantic.
Russell Kent with his Lion, 1979 “I did a drawing of a Mannequin last night in the mall in Perth,” he wrote in his journal on February 13 1979. “It’s a different world at night. The mannequins seem to wake up whilst everybody sleeps. The music that plays in different shops combines to make a strange sound. You are in the mannequin’s world. Well at least that’s how it felt!”
He had just been accepted into the stable of Churchill Gallery in Claremont when his father became ill, and we came to Phillip Island to help in the shop until it sold.
He had just been accepted into the stable of Churchill Gallery in Claremont when his father became ill, and we came to Phillip Island to help in the shop until it sold.
In 1982 we married and moved into an abandoned farmhouse on Kitty Miller Road in the back paddocks of Ventnor where we lived for the next 20 years.
In his journal in 1986 Russell wrote: “In Perth my ideas had been more surreal and do with city living, landscapes were regarded with contempt. Now l am living within a landscape and like it or not it is exerting its influence on me.”
In his journal in 1986 Russell wrote: “In Perth my ideas had been more surreal and do with city living, landscapes were regarded with contempt. Now l am living within a landscape and like it or not it is exerting its influence on me.”
At work on Artist's Dilemma, 1984
Russell painted what was around him. The sparse almost treeless paddocks, the strong greens and rockfaces of the southern coast. The bare hills of Bass and the Strzeleckis struck a strong chord of conservationism. To think that once there were rainforest valleys with trees big enough to house schools inspired him to paint on this subject as well as expressing his innate love of nature.
Contemporary Landscape, 1984 This was also a period of art mastership, Russell experimented in many mediums, continued his life drawings, directed his own solo shows and a number of mixed shows, learning the skills of marketing and promotion. He exhibited his works widely in Victoria. He believed that success in art lay not in specialisation but in diversification, which led him to many challenges. In 1991 he bought a silkscreen printer and developed designs for garments and manufactured his own label of T shirts.
In 1994 we registered the business name of Island Influence and extended our studio space in factories in Cowes and eventually galleries. There are two initial drawings for designs for T-shirts in the exhibition that have not been exhibited before. Of course there are penguins!
During the mid-nineties Russell became fascinated with the Tasmanian Tiger, the Thylacine, and with the concept of the demise of a species. Hence the name of the exhibition, taken from the title of a 1998 painting.
He was a member of the Rare Fauna Association and went out looking for evidence of the Tiger around Grantville and Inverloch. Although deep down he believed he would not find it, it was the desire to see this animal alive that drove his passion and he believed that for some people it was why they had sightings of the tiger. He understood it as a wish fulfillment for the past world.
This spawned a series of paintings and drawings featuring the Thylacine and in one painting a panther. He also produced printed garments with the title Lost in Tasmania and an image of the Thylacine with Cradle Mountain as a backdrop. These sold very well in Tasmania and made for great working holidays.
In 2003 we built our home in Ventnor on a block of land we had bought in 1986. The new studio space inspired a series of works called Mudes, a play on the words moon, nudes and landscape. As an avid drawer of the nude, Russell would often see landscapes that looked like parts of the body, the smooth hills of Bass and dunes around the shoreline. He melded these concepts into a series of small and large paintings and drawings.
In his last decade and with declining health he decided not to paint and concentrated on carving small wooden and wire sculptures and his beloved bush craft.
Russell died on 27 December 2019 at Wonthaggi hospital.
In 1994 we registered the business name of Island Influence and extended our studio space in factories in Cowes and eventually galleries. There are two initial drawings for designs for T-shirts in the exhibition that have not been exhibited before. Of course there are penguins!
During the mid-nineties Russell became fascinated with the Tasmanian Tiger, the Thylacine, and with the concept of the demise of a species. Hence the name of the exhibition, taken from the title of a 1998 painting.
He was a member of the Rare Fauna Association and went out looking for evidence of the Tiger around Grantville and Inverloch. Although deep down he believed he would not find it, it was the desire to see this animal alive that drove his passion and he believed that for some people it was why they had sightings of the tiger. He understood it as a wish fulfillment for the past world.
This spawned a series of paintings and drawings featuring the Thylacine and in one painting a panther. He also produced printed garments with the title Lost in Tasmania and an image of the Thylacine with Cradle Mountain as a backdrop. These sold very well in Tasmania and made for great working holidays.
In 2003 we built our home in Ventnor on a block of land we had bought in 1986. The new studio space inspired a series of works called Mudes, a play on the words moon, nudes and landscape. As an avid drawer of the nude, Russell would often see landscapes that looked like parts of the body, the smooth hills of Bass and dunes around the shoreline. He melded these concepts into a series of small and large paintings and drawings.
In his last decade and with declining health he decided not to paint and concentrated on carving small wooden and wire sculptures and his beloved bush craft.
Russell died on 27 December 2019 at Wonthaggi hospital.