Russell Prescott

Russell was born in Adelaide in 1952 and showed early artistic skill by winning the year 12 Art Prize. But his family expected him to pursue a profession, like his brothers who studied medicine,law and surveying, so he enrolled in Architecture at Adelaide University instead of art school.
After graduating in 1976, Russell worked in local firms and then started his own practice. In the early nineties he moved to Sydney, ultimately establishing his own office in a Balmain warehouse.
He was renown for developing his architectural designs and presentations exclusively through hand drawings and illustrations despite CAD becoming more prevalent. He won several designawards in his architecture career.
By 2018 architecture had become overwhelmed with regulation, planning constraints and business administration, and the lease on the his Balmain waterfront warehouse was about to run out. Russell decided to hand over the practice to his staff and commit fully to art in 2019.
He has done workshops with Wendy Sharpe, the National Art School and Guy Morgan.
The freedom of expression in art was a liberating experience.
Russell was encouraged by winning a prize in the first awards he entered, the Woollahra Art Prize, the subject Queen St. He has been a finalist in six prizes since then, winning another prize in the 2024 Northern Beaches Gallery Art Prize. He works in diverse mediums including acrylics, gouache, charcoal pastel and oils and explores themes of urban and natural landscapes in expressive and figurative style.
The works use the light conditions, early morning, dusk or night to explore unique opportunities to highlight elements and introduce bold colour.