Animal Sculptor
Tanya Russell has become well known over the last 30 years for her life-like and vibrant animal sculptures. For Tanya her practice is not only about capturing the animals she sculpts with marks and movement. It’s about our relationships with those animals and their welfare.
Tanya apprenticed for 7 years with her parents, sculptors Lorne McKean FRBS and Edwin Russell FRBS and after practicing as a sculptor for a number of years, she founded the The Art Academy in London Bridge, now a degree validated and thriving art college. She is also author of ‘Modelling and Sculpting the Figure’. Tanya has completed many public and private commissions nationally and internationally, including 4 large public commissions in London. Tanya exhibits in gardens and galleries across the country.
Artist Statement
I create artwork about our relationships with animals asking ‘how can my work better the lives of animals? How can I support nature, habitats and welfare through my art?
It’s wonderful always looking at and working with a subject that I love. I’ve sculpted since I was a child, and I’ve found throughout my life that expressing animals in clay is an evolving struggle of exploration and respect. I’ve spent my entire life working with rescue animals, fostering dozens of them, volunteering in a rescue centre and now partnering with 3 animal rescue charities, providing them with 10% of the proceeds from all my sales.
Now my husband and I are fortunate to be able to immerse ourselves in nature and inspiration – working together from my studio in mid-Wales, making animal sculpture, creating woods and habitats, and living with our farm and rescue animals.
Your very own sculpture of Bob
The Bob sculpture will be availabe here: https://tanyarussell.com