Nicola Russell: Painter whose portraits captured essence of horses

Nicola Russell: born January 16th, 1964; died June 15th, 2015

The Belfast-based artist Nicola Russell, who has died aged 51, enjoyed an international reputation for her portraits and bright, cheerful, large-scale flower and bird paintings. In the latter part of her career, she concentrated on establishing herself as an Irish George Stubbs by painting some of Ireland's best-known racehorses.

She first made her mark with expansive, heavily textured paintings of flowers such as orchids, peonies and gladioli, joyful works that offered great dashes of reds, pinks, purples and whites, and that pulsed with light and energy. She also painted some of Ireland’s endangered birds such as yellowhammer, lapwing and curlew.

One of her favourite artists was Stubbs, the 18th-century English painter celebrated for his horse portraits. Like him, she carefully studied the anatomy of the animal so her paintings of horses such as Arkle, now in the State collection, and Wild Irish Colt, in Queen Elizabeth’s Windsor Castle collection, were precise and true.

Equine characteristics

Russell believed in attention to detail, spending hours in stable, paddock and pasture, observing the characteristics, habits and idiosyncrasies of horses.

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“You have to get the horse spot on. If there is a leg or a muscle out of place the eye settles on it. It must be right,” she said.

Russell, who was born in Portadown in Co Armagh but lived most of her life in Belfast, said that she agreed with Carl Jung that the horse represents the human spirit. It was one of the reasons that, in 2009, even though recovering from cancer, she embarked on her most ambitious project to paint Ireland’s best-loved horse of the past 25 years.

With great vigour she roped in the likes of trainer and commentator Ted Walsh and racing expert Robert Hall to support her idea. The public was asked from a shortlist of six racehorses (Dawn Run, Istabraq, Moscow Flyer, Danoli, Limestone Lad and Vintage Crop) to vote for their favourite horse, with Istabraq coming through as the winner.

Ted Walsh, who knows horses, was particularly impressed with Russell’s painting of George Washington with Kieren Fallon aboard accounting for his rivals in the 2006 English 2,000 Guineas. “You could immediately see from the painting that this was a horse and jockey in full flight demolishing the opposition, and that’s what George Washington and Fallon did in the Guineas. Her paintings just come alive,” he said.

Family inspirations

Other well-known horses she painted included English Grand National winners Papillon (2000), Monty’s Pass (2003), Hedgehunter (2005) and Numbersixvalverde (2006). She was also inspired by her family, by children, landscape, by nature – all of which featured in her work. She painted the likes of Bill Clinton, the late Mo Mowlam and Baroness May Blood because she felt they helped make the world a better place.

She presented Clinton with a painting of the Fermanagh lakelands – home to his Irish ancestors, the Cassidys.

Russell was a woman of great verve and positivity, even during some of the most trying stages of her illness.

Before her death, she had been working on a new collection of paintings inspired by a three-month period staying in Paris, her favourite city. Her simple and well-lived philosophy of art and life was that “beauty and love should underpin everything”.

She is survived by her partner Kenny, her parents George and Jill (former manager of the Irish Times Belfast office), sister Gail and brother Richard.