Peter Russell-Clarke

About Peter Russell-Clarke

G’day Art Lovers -

Ever since, from my high chair, I painted the walls with Farax, I have been fascinated with the visual of texture and colour. At school, my Algebra confused my French exams as both seemed improbably Picassoesque. I became a commercial artist who gravitated to commercial cartooning, although those who lauded the art scene considered me “an up and coming artist” even though my oils were splashed with claret. I became the political cartoonist for the Melbourne Herald, who gave me money to abandon my easy life at the easel. I also wrote and drew the Australian comic strip ‘Ben Bowyang’ after taking it over from the great Alex McRea. But I returned to painting when the commercial art world and syndicated newspaper drawing was eclipsed by television. Now, although I paint for patrons in Malaysia, London and San Francisco, I work from amongst the hills, granite rocks, kangaroos and cockatoos of Tooborac, Victoria.

Biography: Peter Russell-Clarke was born in 1935 and has been involved with food all his life and, from the first suck of milk until now, he has been interested in food’s origins and its benefits to those who consume it. He wrote hundreds of shows for the national broadcaster (ABC) as well as 150 or so for SBS. He had a long running segment on ‘Good Morning Australia’ and filmed 13 docos in Hong Kong for ‘Good Morning Australia’He created and published a national magazine which he edited. He was the Cooking Consultant for the Commonwealth Government, introducing ‘New Australians’ to Australian attitude to food. He also wrote and drew a comic strip for the Commonwealth Government magazine ‘Good Neighbour’. He was, for 10 years, the Political Cartoonist for the Melbourne Herald, for which he wrote and drew the national cartoon strip ‘Ben Bowyang’ (‘Gunn’s Gully’ in some states), as well as the football strip ‘Harry Carna’. He also produced comic strips for Dulux, ICI, Ford, GMH and TAA. For 45 years he was a freelance commercial artist as well as a feature writer for the Daily Mirror, the Age, the Truth, the Sun, the Herald and the Observer as well as a regular columnist for New Idea, Woman’s Day and others. He has had published 38 books, both paper back and hard cover. One of these is an Encyclopedia of Food. He has run and chefed restaurants of his own. By invitation, he cooked the Silver Jubilee dinner for Prince Charles and has also cooked by invitation for Governors, Prime Ministers and Premiers. For 19 years he was the presenter for the Australian Dairy Board and the Egg Board. He also was presenter, as well as wrote and filmed, for the Citrus Association, the Honey Board, Rice Board, Tea Council, Avocado Council, Macadamia Nut Corp, the Blueberry Industry and recently, the Mussel Industry. He created, filmed and presented Doctors’ Television Network. In recent years he has painted for exhibitions in several prestigious art galleries, selling works in the USA, London and Asia. He has painted many 6’ x 4’ paintings for Malaysia and seventeen 7’ x 5’ paintings for a Melbourne city building.

He was made an Ambassador to the United Nations Year of the Co-op, concentrating on the welfare of farmers and national food security.

Peter is actively painting, writing and presenting radio and TV segments.