Russell Mang

Russell Mang was born in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada, and graduated from the University of Regina in 1982 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. From an early age Russell explored a natural aptitude for watercolors and was self-taught in that medium. He began his professional career in 1982-83, starting out with watercolor landscapes, preferring to work on location whenever possible and eventually moving to Vancouver. The loss of his father in 1988 saw him developing a deeper, more meditative approach to art-making and subject matter.   Unlike his early prairie landscapes, which were attempts to record an emotional response to the land, his BC landscapes became a ‘vocabulary’ to speak of and describe an inner journey of a spiritual and meditative nature. In the course of experimenting with other mediums he developed a much more deliberate approach to color, unlike the mostly intuitive approach he was used to. The artist’s soft pastels were especially helpful in beginning to understand what he has called ‘color mechanics’, the manner in which colors interact and influence each other. He and his wife have since lived in Calgary and returned home to Saskatchewan, now residing in Moose Jaw. He also returned to his first love, the prairie landscape, exploring close and more intimate views as well as sweeping vistas of sky and earth, working in acrylics and re-exploring oils.