50 Treasures: Val Russell's Sketchbooks

This treasure is being featured in 50 Treasures Revisited – Celebrating 50 Years of James Cook University, which is on display at the Cairns Museum from 24 June to 28 October 2023. The exhibition is a collaboration between Cairns Museum and JCU Library, featuring 17 of the 50 Treasures from JCU Library Special Collections which most resonate with Far North Queensland.  

Our twenty-second treasure is the sketchbooks of a prolific north Queensland artist. From the Library Archives comes the Val Russell Sketchbooks.

Ann Roebuck answers the question "why is this significant?"

History is replete with the tales of men and women who discovered continents, new societies, vaccines for dangerous disease, and those who conquered new frontiers in space.

What we don’t hear often enough about, however, are those quiet people among our local communities who are making history – the history of our spaces, our regions – in many different fields.

Atherton Tablelands artist Val Russell was one such person.

In her beautifully written telling of her mother’s life, ‘Sketchbooks – an Artist’s Life on the Tablelands’ (2013), daughter Ellen Danaher describes how Val and her new husband Eric arrived in Atherton in January, 1946, intending to stay for 12 months.

Val Russell sketchbooks. Photograph by Michael Marzik.

Almost 60 years later, not only had they raised a family of three, Val’s love for art and making art led to her becoming a well-known and respected figure in the region. Sketching and painting throughout north Queensland, she produced an enormous body of work which represents not only a pictorial record of place but also an inspirational personal story.

Although she never really thought she was any good at it, the facts tell another story. In a career spanning almost 50 years, she produced a series of 39 sketchbooks – hundreds of full-page sketches and other, smaller drawings in varied mediums - which she used as the basis for the creation of more than 700 works of art. She also created art in other mediums: bark and paper collages, soapstone sculptures, poetry and books, a total 1200 works in all.

During her long career, Val sold 1000 of those pieces. In any artist’s book, that is a definitive statement of ability!

Val Russell, 1991. Photograph by Ellen Danaher.

In 1961 she enrolled in an art correspondence course. This fact alone made her an object of some curiosity among friends and as a woman ahead of her time. Ellen remembers vividly those days when work would be returned from Melbourne:

“Markings on tracing paper would cover Mum’s work if the teacher thought improvements could be made and there would be notes written all over it,’’ she said. “Opening a parcel of sketches that had no tracing paper was really exciting – we all cheered and celebrated with her when that happened.’’

"The Grandstand" Tolga racecourse, 1976. Val Russell sketchbook No. 16.

Ellen saw the correspondence course as a ‘reflection of a lovely interweaving of art and family life’. “She did that course from home while we grew up around it.’’

Val attained her diploma in 1967. That same year, Val and two good friends who had attended TAFE art classes with her in Atherton established the Atherton District Art Society, the first of its kind on the Tablelands. This desire to offer others an opportunity to be part of a supportive art environment also marks Val Russell as an innovator. The society’s first exhibition was held in November that year, and Val remained a contributor for 37 years.

El-Arish Hotel, March 1969. Val Russell sketchbook No. 6.

Key to her prodigious output was her habit of producing multiple paintings from the same sketch, using different mediums. One example is a sketch (photograph on p.73 of Ellen’s book) from which 10 paintings, using sections of this scene, were done. Other works were created from quick sketches of anything at hand at the time. One example is People Passing By (photograph on p.131), a montage of figure drawings on scraps of paper.

From her studio, always known as ‘the back room’ by her family, Val was able to tell the story of the Tablelands’ growth and prosperity, offering locals and those further afield the ability to see history in the making.

"Alan's Birdbath" 1986. Val Russell sketchbook No.30.

Her meticulous cataloguing skills also give researchers a deep understanding of her progress as an artist as well as the progress of the places she worked in. Two ledgers contained lists of every work she ever made, whether or not it was sold, where it was exhibited, and so on.

She regularly sketched, and then painted, buildings of historical interest for fear they might soon disappear. Her custom of incorporating sketches into the family’s holiday travels continued, too, for many years. The subsequent work reflects the histories of many regions around far north and north Queensland and so represent a vital link in our knowledge of almost five decades of mid-20th Century Queensland architecture.

"Abandoned church" Port Douglas, 1975. Val Russell sketchbook No. 16.

Her ability to build a home and raise a family alongside establishing a very lengthy and successful art career in a small town in far north Queensland is remarkable. For her to have believed in art and to have the desire to make art as a regional person, so far away from state and national art institutions and galleries, took serious motivation and determination.

Ellen says ‘the desire was always there’. “It amazes me to this day that Mum achieved what she did – she had no role model for any of it,’’ she recalled. “She often described her career as ‘my humble efforts’ but it was so much more than that.’’

"Old Buildings at the Battery". Val Russell sketchbook No. 30.

Val continued working in earnest after her children had grown and left home. She was heavily involved in fostering an art movement on the Tablelands and a love for the Arts in general among the region’s population.

Gradually her output declined, particularly after Eric passed away in June 1992. The last sketches in sketchbook number 39 were done in her own backyard in 2000, looking out over the house and garden she had nurtured so lovingly for five decades.

"Port Douglas Seascape". Val Russell sketchbook No. 30.

The official opening of the Tableland Regional Art Gallery in March 2008 provided a fitting tribute to a woman whose efforts played such a significant role in fostering the growth of the Arts in the region. Val died in September 2009, her family and those among north Queensland’s Arts community the recipients of her great devotion to what she believed in. Now, with the gift of her archive to JCU’s Special Collections, the work of this quiet revolutionary is available to a whole new audience.
 

Over the course of 2020, JCU Library's Special Collections unveiled 50 Treasures from the collections to celebrate 50 years of James Cook University.

JCU Library is fortunate to have collections of unique and rare resources — including artworks — of regional and national significance, describing life in the tropics. We hope you are inspired to explore further by visiting all of our digital treasures and their stories at NQHeritage@JCU.  

Author Biography
Ann Roebuck (Bachelor of Arts – Media and Communication) is a journalist whose 40-year career took her all over regional Queensland. She has long been a champion of the importance of regional centres as the breeding grounds of greatness.

A retired Managing Editor, Ann has lectured in media and journalism at JCU on two occasions.
She is the President of the Board of Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts in Townsville and Secretary of the Townsville Multicultural Support Group, as well as a member of the Queensland Government's Gambling Community Benefit Fund board. Ann currently volunteers with JCU Library Special Collections.