THE ART OF BUSINESS

Nicola Russell

Crossing the Rubicon from artist to business person involves painful mental gymnastics caused by having to acquire a set of skills which do not sit naturally with artistic creativity. Nicola Russell explains to Dympna O’Callaghan how she successfully mastered the transition

If you are a lover of horses, flowers, bright and bold colours, and works of art that stop you in your tracks, then you will love Nicola Russell, the person and her work. She exudes colour; in her persona and in her output. One handshake and you feel enveloped by creativity and an enthusiasm that springs only from someone totally in tune with herself, her ability and a powerful inner belief. This is not acquired; it is innate.

Art has always been a passion for Russell; the art of creating things; games, toys, clothes and furniture as a child then beautiful paintings as an adult. She was born with a natural urge to be creative; to make something from nothing and she set about creating a business from this talent in a much organised way: A levels in Art; a degree in Fine Art at Winchester Art College, and a scholarship to the British School in Rome, all helped to hone and fine tune the inherent skills and burning desire to paint that lay both in her mind and in her hands.

THE TRANSITION

When Russell left college in 1987 she had to cope with the realities of ‘being an artist’. “I had no clear definite goal; my training at College was not focussed on business, purely on the concepts and aesthetics behind art. Selling art as a business would go against the grain of what I had learnt.” Russell returned to Belfast to work for ten years on Public Sector commissions. It was during this time that she won her scholarship to the British School in Rome, which was a seminal period in her career development. “It was my seal of achievement of excellence, yet I was earning zero; I was existing on grants so I had to ask myself, ‘where to from here’?”

TIME OUT

A year out in 1995 led her to window dressing and stacking shelves, but also to remembering her student-day heroes, Dutch-born De Kooning, a painter with an international reputation, who produced and sold fantastic paintings for large sums of money; the Old Masters: Leonardo de Vinci, and the lesser known Italian Renaissance artist, Mantegna who were consummate businessmen and great artists.

They were her ‘light bulbs’. Through looking at them, she knew she could earn a living through art. She was painting what she loved and now recognised that she had an excellent product that she could market. So in 1997, Russell, the business woman was born. She moved her studio from a plastic-covered corner in her parents’ home to an Enterprise Centre in west Belfast.

A NEW SKILL SET

“That was when the mental gymnastics kicked in. The art of business did not come naturally; it went against what I was taught. Dealing with the logistical and financial side of business was not creative, it was restrictive,” Russell says. Her first series of six small fifteen-inch paintings, depicting simple subjects sold via art galleries in Belfast for £1,000. By the end of year two Russell had produced over 60 paintings and was building up her ‘business jargon’ vocabulary. Words like visibility and profit margins sat alongside texture and colour in her brain.

Russell relished her new world. “I guess the entrepreneur in me emerged. I was curious, determined, and tenacious; energetically accepting what was thrown at me. Yet I held on to my personal ambition, to be a successful artist; that’s what carried me through difficult times.” By 1999 Russell had moved to larger premises in Hollywood, Co. Down. “Visibility sells art so I needed a prime location with a big street-level window,” she adds.

This move taught her how to haggle; a negotiated £20,000 rent required a £6,000 loan from her parents and the rest from the bank. Her adrenalin reached a new level. “It was an exhilarating period,” Russell says. She learnt the ‘art’ of networking and dressing for business, joining business organisations to be around other business people in order to develop the business side of her brain. She became business smart and saw the importance of presentation at a personal level.

ALARM BELLS

While the move to Hollywood was very successful, alarm bells rang in 2000 alerting Russell to a second crisis point in her career. Her innate skill set, the ability to produce something outstandingly beautiful was being eroded by the need to pay bills. Business was beginning to infringe art. “I was standing still as an artist. I knew I wanted to paint for the rest of my life, but not in a pressurised way; I wanted a rich and great private life too,” Russell explains. She left the ‘big window’ and spent six months replenishing her life. She even went to India for inspiration. A move to an arts building in Queen Street, Belfast has recovered the artist in Russell; she has found privacy and space in a bright, light-filled studio and her output and notoriety have reached new heights.

AN AWESOME COLLECTION

Notables in her career include: first resident artist in Powerscourt Estate and Mount Stewart; first artist to display in Brown Thomas’ windows; her portraits of the late Mo Mowlam; President Bill Clinton; and the ‘Wild Irish Colt’, which she presented to the Queen at Windsor Castle, are world renowned. Her portraits of horses include Arkle (now housed at Farmleigh) and Brave Inca.

Russell’s energetic mind is always planning. She has ambitious projects in the pipeline in the Irish private sector. International interest in her work is in place and she is keen to extend her business acumen by bringing her work to new markets in the Middle East and the US. This summer she will be exhibiting her new collection of equestrian and floral paintings at the Dublin Horse Show in August. Watch out for the bright star shining on Nicola Russell’s easel.

Published in the July/August 2007 Issue of Irish Entrepreneur