Interview: Elizabeth Russell
Interview between The Painting Salon and Elizabeth Russell in anticipation of a fundraising event for The Painting Salon and converastion between Elizabeth Russell and John Zurier taking place On Friday, October 27th.
Event link / purchase tickets: HERE
Do you have any studio rituals? How do you get ready to make work?
It depends. If I have a deadline, I’ll jump right into whatever needs attention from the day before. My ideal day begins early with something soothing and simple, like prepping a canvas, then doing a collage, then moving to work where more is at stake. I also periodically like to clean up. I love repainting my walls white after a project, starting over with a blank slate.
Do you listen to anything while working in the studio?
When I’m working I prefer music that’s sustaining, runs long, and is not rapid-cycling, like Bach, jazz, and sometimes early music. I listen to Malcolm Gladwell and the World in Words for podcasts. At times I love silence. These days we’re bombarded by stimuli to such a degree that I find silence is more precious than ever.
Where do you find your inspiration for your compositions?
I like a sense of verticality and rising, and my compositions come from remembered sites in landscape and on the water. They are derived from memories of being in certain places at specific moments, like spatial relationships from the world compressed into shapes.
Tell us about your color palette. How do you select colors for paintings?
My color palettes draw inspiration from early memories of growing up very connected to the ocean in my hometown in Massachusetts, which has epic, rich, nuanced light. We were always outside and somewhere on the landscape and near the water. I am interested in the way colors shift in the sky and on the water over time, and in response to weather. I also like colors that unsettle otherwise harmonious palettes, that convey a feeling of unease or anticipation.
Your and John Zurier’s work shares a sensibility around color and texture, although you both use materials that are unique to your practices. Can you talk a little about your relationship to his work?
I admire John’s approach to deeply investigating materials, and the rigor of his commitment to his practice. John’s work has a lot of integrity, in that it is made with a commitment to a real unity between what the work expresses and how those values are embodied in the work.
