Artist Biography & Facts

James L Russell

The following is from Mary Katherine Russell Smith, Floyds Knobs, Indiana.  She is the granddaughter of the artist:

James L. Russell was born in New Albany, Indiana October 10. 1872 of Irish ancestry and died on May 12, 1937.  Russell's early expression in art was as a stone sculptor and cutter.  His work still stands at the entrances of the Carnegie Center of Art and History in New Albany.  In 1906, Russell opened the Art Shop in New Albany, and this became a gathering place for artists of the area.  He then founded the Wonderland Way Art Club at his studio and invited all artists to meet and discuss each others art and styles.  Russell was a teacher and had over 300 artist members in the Club.

Russell developed his own impressionist style of oil and pastel painting that became known as A Sense of Place style or Ohio Valley style.

Russell exhibited in the Hoosier Salon, New Albany High School Gallery, Floyd County Library Shows, The Speed Museum, Brown County Art Guild and Wonderland Way exhibits.

His works can be found at the Speed Art Museum, Carnegie Center, Brown County Art Guild, Floyds County Library, Chicago Art Institute, Indianapolis Art Museum and can be found in many noted collections nationally.

Russell painted with William Forsythe, Joseph Krementz, Sid Crosier, Carl Brenner, Grover Page Sr and Grover Page Jr at King's Art Camp in Frankfort, Kentucky and John Bauscher, Harvey Joiner and Paul Plaschke at the Louisville School of Art.  In his lifetime Mr. Russell also taught many aspiring artists at his studio during any free time he might have had.

There was a retrospective show of Russell's work in January of 2000 at the Carnegie Center in New Albany. Collectors from all over the Midwest loaned their pieces for the exhibit where over 16,000 visitors attended it in during the two month show.

On November 24, 2014, The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky (across the Ohio River from New Albany) had this headline: "IUS to get artwork worth more than $500,000" followed by the following text by Elizabeth Kramer:

With the unveiling Monday of 10 paintings by Artists of the Wonderland Way donated to Indiana University Southeast, Don and Kathy Smith of Floyds Knobs, Ind., begin their donation of artwork valued at more than $500,000 to start a permanent collection at the university.

When the Smiths married more than 50 years ago, Kathy's grandmother offered them a wedding gift — a painting made by her grandfather, James L. Russell, who died in 1937 at age 26.

"I was thrilled to death. She let us pick one out," Kathy Smith said last week at their home in Floyds Knobs.

That painting came with a directive from her grandmother: Find and collect other works by Russell and other Artists of the Wonderland Way, a group of nearly 300 painters from Indiana and Kentucky in the early 1900s.

Since then, the Smiths have collected more than 600 paintings by mostly regional artists, a large portion of them Wonderland Way painters, and last week saw 10 of them installed at the university's Paul W. Ogle Cultural & Community Center as part of The James L. Russell Wonderland Way Collection.

"Having the work here can help change the face of this campus," said university chancellor Ray Wallace. "It will allow art students and other students to study fabulous American artists, but it will allow people from outside the area to see the work and be an educational tourist attraction."

The Smiths, who had certified art appraisers evaluate the paintings, said that the 10 paintings are valued at more than $300,000, and in the next few years they plan to donate more than 40 others valued at more than $200,000. They also are encouraging other collectors to do the same.

"We've gone all around the United States to collect this work," Don Smith said.

"Most of it needs some kind of restoration. A lot of it is hanging in our home, but it's time to put it somewhere where it will be protected."

Some of the Wonderland Way paintings that adorn the walls of Don and Kathy Smith's home in Floyds Knobs. The couple will be donating 50 paintings to IU Southeast for a permanent exhibit. Nov. 20, 2014

The Wonderland Way artists met at the art and frame shop that James L. Russell opened in 1906 at 203 E. Market St. in New Albany, Ind. Nearly once a week, they gathered to talk about their work and often took outings together to rural areas to paint in plein air (or open air) — a practice that grew in popularity after tubes of paint became available in the late 1800s and became more affordable.

Talks between the Smiths and the university about the collection began nearly two years ago. Sherry Rouse, IU's curator of campus art based in Bloomington, has been involved in the discussions. She said this step to house an art collection is a first for IUS but not for IU's other campuses. Its main campus in Bloomington began collecting art not long after its founding in 1820.

In the past several months, Rouse has been working closely with the Smiths to properly mount and frame the paintings for their public display.

"It definitely was an important art colony," she said of the Wonderland Way artists.

"I think we're going to see a snapshot of the way the world was at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s in this collection."

She credited the Smiths for collecting histories and anecdotes of many of the paintings they've collected. Don Smith has a file cabinet full of those stories in the couple's basement.

The art club, formally formed in 1935, took its name from a 1920s tourism promotion campaign of the same name and a route devised by the tourism proponents of Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio to encourage people to travel scenic byways along the Ohio River from Cincinnati to Mount Vernon, Ill.

The club included Russell and later his son, James J. Russell, as well as other early 20th century artists, many of whom were well known throughout the region.

Among the notable painters are Harvey Joiner, a German immigrant who was influenced by the notable Louisville landscape painter Carl Christian Brenner; and Paul Plaschke, who studied in New York with George Luks of the realistic movement known as the Ashcan school, co-founded the Louisville Art Academy and helped establish the Speed Art Museum. Another member was William J. Forsyth, who studied at the Royal Academy in Munich before settling in Indiana, where he painted the landscape and was part of the Hoosier Group of artists that included T. C. Steele and J. Ottis Adams.

Rachel Berenson Perry — a curator emerita of Indiana State Museum and author of several books, including Paint and Canvas: A Life of T. C. Steele" and "William J. Forsyth: The Life and Work of an Indiana Artist — credited this collection at IUS with helping to raise awareness of the artists' talent and proficiency.

"Many of these artists were quite accomplished, but their work was not nationally known," she said. "Their choice to live and work in the Midwest instead of relocating and marketing their work on the East Coast limited wide exposure."

The Smiths' collection and work with curators on various exhibits over the past 15 years has heightened awareness of the Wonderland Way artists.