Awards:
2015 Honourable Mention - End of Year Show – 69 Smith St Gallery – Melbourne
2009 2nd Prize ‘Reuse, Reclaim, Recycle’ – Green Lifestyle – Canberra
2004 People’s Choice - ‘Recycled – Reborn’- Cuppacumbalong Gallery – Tharwa
2004 1 st Prize - ‘Footsteps on Campus: Connections with Environment’ - Australian National University – Canberra
2002 1st Prize - Seer Green Art Show – Buckinghamshire, UK
Solo Exhibitions:
2020 ‘Fractured Earth’ – Lane Cove Gallery Sculpture Plinth - Sydney
2016 ‘Stitch by Stitch’ - 69 Smith St Gallery – Melbourne
2009 ‘Spring Landscapes’ – Body Works Studio – Canberra
Group Exhibitions:
2020
• Stitch On – Schoolhouse Gallery - Hobart
• Miniature Textile – Wangaratta Art Gallery
• Arts Under Lockdown – Counterweave - Online
• TransCultural Exchange’s Hello World project - Online
• The Meaning of Things – Craft Victoria
• Woman Up! - Impress Printmakers Studio & Gallery - Brisbane
2019
• ‘Another Artist’ - No Vacancy Gallery - Melbourne
• ‘Circular’ – Blakdot Gallery - Melbourne
• ‘Language and Liberty’ – Counihan Art Gallery – Melbourne
• Linden Post Card Show – Linden New Art - Melbourne
2017
• Small Works – Brunswick Street Gallery - Melbourne
• Strut Your Stuff – Art Exhibition – Brunswick
Residencies:
2019 - Artist Residency – Curtin Springs – NT
2017 - Desert Harmony Festival – Volunteer Artist
Publications:
Machine Embroidery & Textile Art – Vol 13 No 2
Textile Beat - http://textilebeat.com/a-meditative-process-tamara-russell/
ClimateXChange – http://canberra.climatexchange.org.au/recycling-in-the-arts-and-crafts
Arts Muster - https://www.artsmuster.com.au/post/tamara-and-the-art-of-mending-and-recycling
Collections:
Private collections in Australia and the UK
Tamara Russell is a Textile Artist based in Melbourne, specialising in free machine embroidery and hand stitching.
I explore my surroundings and interpret what I see through the medium of embroidery. In my works composition, I combine light, colour, shape and texture to recreate images that inspire me. I consider myself a painter using thread, an artist painting with a needle. My work has been exhibited in Australia and the United Kingdom.
My practice engages with the natural environment recreating the images and shapes in my embroidered works in both 2D and 3D form. I am not primarily a photographer but my photos are invaluable to me as a record of composition, colour and detail, supported by my sketches. Photos are my starting point as I explore my subject matter directly onto fabric, painting with a needle and thread.
Each piece uses photography, watercolour painting, beading, fabric, soluble backing, machine stitch and/or hand stitch, either alone or in combination. This creates depth, perspective and richness to the work and combines effectively to give detail and texture.
