Biography of Russell B. Cross
Born in Augusta, Maine 1915, Russ completed his education at Pratt Institute of Fine and Applied Arts in NYC. He began his career illustrating sea stories for Colliers Magazine, the Saturday Evening Post and Esso billboard advertising.
RUSSELL B. CROSS
November 15, 1915 — October, 2, 2010
Russell B. Cross enjoyed a long and illustrious career as an educator, illustrator and painter, including teaching art at New York University, as well as with several major New York and New England advertising agencies, which spanned his 94 years, as he painted up till he left us, leaving behind a prolific and captivating legacy of brilliant work.
His work has been shown in galleries in New England and New York and many of his paintings proudly hang in private collections and galleries around the world.
Russell taught at his studio in Framingham, MA, for thirty years, and also conducted multi-media workshops and classes at many locations throughout the area, where he was known as an exceedingly gregarious, amusing, and patient teacher, inspiring legions of budding artists who remember him still, with an immense sense of fondness, gratitude, and reverence.
He and his wife Jane relocated to Northampton in 1996, where Russell continued to teach classes and workshops at Hill Institute, Lathrop Communities, ECOA, NCOA, and other locations in the Pioneer Valley. Over the years Russell has been a revered member of many Art Societies, such as the prestigious Copley Society, receiving numerous ribbons, awards, and prizes for his paintings.
Russell’s work is exemplary of a romantic and effervescent appreciation for and use of color, an astounding talent for chiaroscuro, as illustrated by his inherent ability for capturing the beauty of nature both in unrestrained motion and at moments so very still and peaceful as to mesmerize by their intensely beautiful and resonant quietude. With a master’s stroke and a poet’s eye, Russell was deftly able to contrive such moments of resoundingly silent stillness by way of varying subtle hues and a seeming lack of detail. Yet with an eye for details and hues, often rarely noticed at first glance, Russell’s work is alive with a comprehension for the impact of both subtlety and force.
