RUSSELL JEFF
Painting.
Until 18 April 2015
Russell Jeff. Painting 2015, acrylic on board 100 x 250 cm
Russell Jeff. Painting (detail) 2015, acrylic on board 100 x 250 cm
To describe
Russell Jeff, as an outsider artist is one way of saying that his art has yet
to be absorbed by the thin veneer that is Sydney’s art word. Out here the
sustained passion of his remarkable body of work stands “Enr Mally-like” oblivious
to the mannered conventions of our art scene. Seemingly it is made up - out of
nothing.
Russell
Jeff invented this. And “this” sits a little uncomfortably out side what is
usually considered art. While referring, perhaps unwittingly to both the
natural world and the idea of art these collections of painted marks, these fastidiously
arranged flicks and dots convey the emotional depth of a world known only to
Russell Jeff.
Russel
was adopted by a couple from Sutherland who lived there until 1968 when they
moved to Sawtell near Coffs Harbour. Russel went on to leave school at 16.
Worked as a labourer for a couple of years before joining the air force at 19
in 1978. They took Russell as a boy, 4 years later they gave Russell back - the
man who went on working as a labourer along the north coast of New South
Wales. Then about 15 years ago he
moved to Sydney. He was homeless for a while working at Flemington market. As
he reached 50 illness struck, massive surgery to his stomach and bowel put him
into “housing”, the department of housing flats around the corner from SLOT in
Waterloo. For a while he had a job in a plastics factory in Gymea that lasted
until Dollar
hit parity with the US currency and since then, he’s been on the “rock and
roll”.
It
was Ken Harris who has a Sunday afternoon show on TVS about painting that
Russell says inspired him to paint. He bought some brushes, found some
materials and began.
Wanting
to get a gauge on what he was doing he set up a display in the tunnel at
central railway – a lady walked past and said I could even buy that. It was
encouragement enough for Russell.
4
years later Russell Jeff has made the visionary journey to these works, which
is the kind of journey that ennobles the human sprit.
