Jeremy Russell, an abstract expressionist landscape painter from Asheville, N.C., received his BFA from the University of North Carolina, Asheville. Prior to pursuing a full-time studio practice, Russell established a robust technical foundation through his work as a muralist and a painter for theatrical sets, cinematic productions, and theme park attractions. His creative process investigates the inherent tension between chaos and structure. Russell’s landscape paintings dissolve the boundaries between abstract expressionism and tangible reality, prioritizing the visceral sensation of a specific moment, like the rush of a stream or the shift of light, over a strictly representational rendering of the environment. In the “Here Today” exhibition Russell captures the experience of a specific, passing moment by prioritizing the fleeting, temporary nature of time, light and feeling over static realism. By focusing on the movement of a stream or the shifting of light his paintings serve as a visual reminder of a precise time and place.

A&L:  Your landscape paintings still lean into abstraction. When interpreting a landscape, do you feel abstraction more accurately captures your experience of a place?

Jeremy: I don't necessarily feel like it makes the depiction or even feel of a place more accurate, but I do lay the foundation of a mood and a background energy. This foundation can be in opposition or harmony with the top layers. I

 find that the viewing process is defined in part by the struggle that happens between the abstract layers and the more literal information on the final layers that creates atmospheric animation. It makes a painting alive with movement. 

A&L: For Here Today, your pieces focus on the fleeting nature of time and shifting light. How do you translate something as fast and temporary as a single, passing moment into a static, physical painting?

Jeremy: In order to capture the fleeting nature of reality,  I choose to focus on the physics of existence. My work is highly influenced by the fact that matter is made of energy on a subatomic level. 

This originally was spurned by the use of psychedelics as a young adult, but is now apparent to me when sitting in nature. I am not only aware of it but it actually brings me a sort of comfort in the fact that I cannot control it and I choose to surrender to the chaotic nature of the space time continuum. It's almost a spiritual acknowledgement. 

A&L: How do you determine the color palette of a painting? Do you have a favorite paint color?

Jeremy: My color palettes are what I consider the most challenging and personal aspects of painting. 

Every color I use is pre mixed in complex relationships with the color family of a whole series. Before I begin a series I mix 50 or so pints of acrylic variants. I always add complimentary colors together to dually enrich and slightly desaturate colors. I

 find pure colors offensive and almost crass. I like to use variations of each color with just a slight change in hue and it causes a movement that is hard for the viewer to comprehend but it is there none the less. 

I usually start each painting with unnatural colors that compliment or conflict with the top layers to establish my characteristically energetic paintings. This base layer is a sort of premise to the following layers as reactions to the original foundation. It's largely intuitive and sometimes it fails, but the challenge to create a novel piece each time is what keeps me interested and moving forward.