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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Charles Russell's Studio

Life was just fine for Charles Russell and his wife in Montana, but one day he thought it could be made better. He casually mentioned that life would be better if he had a studio separate from the house where visitors didn't have to traipse through the space where he painted. His wife, Nancy, got right on it and had thrown together a small building of telephone poles and rocks and he soon had a place where he could paint and remember things past in private.

This tribute to Charlie Russell's log cabin studio was written by Lola Shelton and published in 1968 by Bantam Books in an anthology of  the Western Writers of America, 14 Spurs.

Russell wasn't paying much attention to the construction and wondered if it should be built after someone said it looked like it was going to be an old corral in the middle of town. Later, his neighbor told him it looked like it was going to be a fine addition to the town, which brightened up Charlie's spirits enough to take the neighbor on a tour through it and told him all about what was going to transpire inside. And after Russell's death, an addition was added to it where a collection of Russell paintings could be shown to the public.

My thanks to Lola Shelton for writing this short story adding to the history of the West. Charles Russell's paintings captured the Real West and the Indians. Places like this studio and Zane Grey's cabin in Arizona are inspirational in keeping the West alive.                                                            

8 comments:

  1. I think it can help our creativity to have a proper area in which to work - whether that's a special building or just a particular corner of a room which is also used for other things.

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    1. Privacy means a liot when you're trying to write or paint or remembering things past..

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  2. I have some re-prints of Russell's work, great western artist. I also like the idea of a space to create but I am not very good at it. After all my years teaching seems I work better surrounded by noise. I am trying to listen to 50s radio in my space and it seems to work.

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    1. Some people require complete silence, and others like a little noise like music or talk radio. I listen to music once in a while.

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