Russell

Hughes

I have no formal arts education. My mother was an elementary art teacher and has been my life-long artistic influence. I served and retired from the US Air Force and have worked for Cary since 2008. I am currently the operations supervisor at the Cary Arts Center.

Artists are makers – something from nothing, or something from something else… but always something that didn’t exist in this way before. Be it a painting, a composition of musical notes, a photograph or a carving, a quilt or a mosaic, a pot or a cup, or an arrangement of words that touch a single heart or create a movement – artists feel the compulsion to “make” from their own hearts and hands. My paintings reflect a past of hand-hewn barns, rusted trucks and tired old tractors, sitting silently in the midst of an old crop row or underneath the collapsing awning of a long-leaning tobacco barn. Every scene has a personal family story behind it, and most often no one left to tell it. You will rarely see a human being in any of my paintings, mostly because I’m depicting the long absence of a person from the scene I’m representing. Each place has a forgotten spirit that I try to rekindle, whether factual or fictitious. I hold a deep appreciation for those who, so long ago, put these tools and places to work. They made them a vital part of their lives, and rather than part with them or scrap them – they kept them close to home. In some ways they became a part of the family. I want my paintings remind us of our own heritage and our own family stories. I hope they evoke an emotion that you find difficult to part with.

Acrylic, Water Soluble Oil, Pen/Ink, Photography

www.russhughesrusticart.com