Artist, 94, still passionate about his work
BUTLER TWP — “I was a natural.”
That's what Andrew Russin, 94, said about being an artist.
“When I was 6 years old, I started drawing,” Russin said. “My mom used to try to get me out of the house.
“I would just draw and draw, eight to 10 hours a day,” Russin said.
Eventually, he decided to make art more than a hobby and as a young man took classes to further his career.
Russin studied under artist Henry Marcus Moran in Pittsburgh and at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
“Moran taught out of his house and only had 15 students,” Russin said.
After a stint in the U.S. Army Air Corps in World War II, during which he earned a Purple Heart, Russin went back to his artwork.
He took more art classes, this time in 1951 at the Famous Artists School in Westport, Conn. The school was founded in 1948 and had famous artists as the faculty, including Norman Rockwell.
“Rockwell, he was shocked when he saw my work,” Russin said. “I was good, doggone it, and I knew it.”
Russin keeps his art books from the school in his closet. He pulled them out to show how well he exceeded the lessons, even though he never got better than a B plus.
He said, “I only got a B plus cause they wouldn't give you higher.”
Russin's home is filled with the artwork he has completed over the years. It can take three to four months to complete a painting, and he signs every piece Andre Russin.
As he looked through his old sketches he said, “I should have been a surgeon, I studied so much anatomy.”
Russin has hobbies other than painting; he also builds models of planes, ships, automobiles and submarines.
“I get a big bang out of doing them,” Russin said.
He uses the same amount of detail when building the models that fill his basement.
“That is what I love to do,” he said about the precision work. “I have to use tweezers.”
His collection includes two models of the Titanic, Old Ironsides, German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel's desert car that he used during World War II and many planes.
“I was down here with a friend of mine, and he dropped this (ship) and broke the front end. I was gonna kill him,” Russin said.
It can take up to three months to build the big ships.“When I used to build these, I would think that I was on them,” Russin said.“That's the God's truth,” Russin added. “I am a dreamer.”Part of the dream that Russin lived was his trips to Hollywood.“I was out in California when Clark Gable and Marilyn Monroe were making 'The Misfits,'” said Russin. “I met them; Clark Gable was p'd off at Marilyn because she was always two hours late.”Today, Russin tells his stories when he eats lunch at Eat'n Park at the Clearview Mall.Russin enjoys talking to the other customers and telling his stories to anyone who will listen.“He likes talking to the waitresses,” Mary Avery of Center Township, a fellow customer, said.Russin said he likes to see the children out with their grandparents.“I eat out every day and I buy these for the kids,” Russin said as he held up a stuffed animal.“He is an everyday staple at Eat'n Park,” Avery said.It is not hard to spot Russin when he enters the restaurant.“He is always dressed to the nines,” Avery said.What most people would consider dressing up, Russin considers everyday attire.Not one to be modest, Russin is the self-proclaimed best-dressed man in Butler County.“I dress up like nobody. I always wear a bow tie,” Russin said.Russin's closet is stuffed with clothes covered with bags. “I don't want anything to get dusty,” he said.He had even more clothes hanging in the laundry room and says he has so many clothes to fit his different moods.His style adds to his personality.“I am a very fussy guy,” Russin said.It is in being fussy over the small details that has helped him create his very detailed artwork.Russin has many portraits hanging on the walls of his home, and even more in the sketchbooks and folders lying around.“That's the trick to artwork, you have to know how to blend,” Russin said.He has art students come to his house and he says he knows if they have what it takes or not. “I try to teach shading and you can't teach that,” he said.Russin does not have a favorite medium for art.“You can't use one technique you have to use all kinds of techniques,” he said. “I'm good in everything.“I will take anybody on in artwork, anybody.”
