Russell Chatham

Chatham's parents were Russell Wilson Chatham (1906–1974) and Romy Charlotte Piazzoni (1908-1996). His great uncle was Luigi Piazzoni, a Swiss-born immigrant who came to upper Carmel Valley, California in the 19th-century along with his grandfather.{{cite web|url=https://bolinasmuseum.org/exhibitions/the-piazzoni-legacy/|title=The Piazzoni Legacy, Three Generations Paint the Splendors of California|work=Bolinas Museum|author=Jan Holloway|place=|date=June 26, 2005|access-date=2023-01-16}}{{cite book|last=Chatham|first=Russell|url=https://archive.org/details/russellchathamon0000chat/page/119/mode/1up?q=%22Piazzoni+Ranch%22|title=Russell Chatham: One Hundred Paintings|work=Clark City Press|place=Livingston, Montana|date=1990|access-date=2023-01-16}}{{cite web|url=https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/LVZC-RYQ|title= Historical Information for Russell Wilson Chatham |website=FamilySearch|access-date=2023-01-16}}

Chatham's work eschewed the narrative tendency of much western art and presented landscapes that stand in intimate relationship towards the human figure even in the absence of it. In the early 1980s Chatham began making lithographs and stood as one of the world's foremost practitioners of that craft.{{cite web|title=The Renaissance of Russell Chatham|last=Wilkinson|first=Todd|url=http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/the_renaissance_of_russell_chatham/C39/L39|publisher=New West|date=July 25, 2006|accessdate=July 24, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918014714/http://www.newwest.net/index.php/topic/article/the_renaissance_of_russell_chatham/C39/L39|archivedate=September 18, 2012}}

In addition to lithography, Chatham also produced original oil paintings. His oil paintings currently sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and there was a multi-year waiting list for commissions, but according to his dealers, he preferred printing lithographs as the more challenging art form. (Longtime Livingston residents can recall a time when early in his career Chatham traded his canvases for essential services in a barter arrangement.) Despite being a print, Chatham's lithographs have little to do with modern process lithography, which always starts from a photograph and typically only uses four colors. His art lithographs may have 30 or 40 different layers of color, all of which have to be hand drawn on to the printing plate, and the colors selected for the final effect. To see some of the early proofs of one of his prints is to see a study in vivid and unusual colors from which it is almost impossible to conceive of the final subtle shadings and quiet colors.

In addition to his work as a painter, Chatham also authored several books. a series of short stories "Dark Waters" in which he detailed the exploits of his hunting friends, like the author Jim Harrison. The stories were Rabelaisian, vulgar, and exquisitely written (one suspects with a little help from his literary friends). William Hjortsberg disputed this during a presentation in Livingston on [http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977447592&nav=MyGather Livingston on December 9, 2008]. "He is quite a good writer in his own right," Hjortsberg said. They center on hunting, fly fishing, food, wine and life changes. One story centers around preparing roast duck on an annual outing devoted solely to excess.{{cite journal|title=To Find Russell Chatham, Look Homeward|url=http://www.wildlifeartjournal.com/articles/wildlife-art-journal-premium-content/summer-2011/179/to-find-russell-chatham-look-homeward.html|last=Wilkinson|first=Todd|journal=Wildlife Art Journal|accessdate=August 30, 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130105165811/http://www.wildlifeartjournal.com/articles/wildlife-art-journal-premium-content/summer-2011/179/to-find-russell-chatham-look-homeward.html|archivedate=January 5, 2013}} In addition to "Dark Waters", Chatham authored several books about fly fishing.

Many of Chatham's painted works have adorned the covers of Harrison's works.

In 2011, Chatham moved from Livingston back to California. He had a studio in Marshall, California.

• "Striped bass on the fly: a guide to California waters" (Examiner Special Projects, 1977) {{ISBN|978-0893950002}}
• "Russell Chatham" (Clark City Press, 1987) {{ISBN|978-0944439005}}
• "Silent Seasons: Twenty-one Fishing Stories" (Clark City Press, 1988) {{ISBN|978-0944439050}}
• "Dark Waters: Essays, Short Stories and Articles (Clark City Press, 1988) {{ISBN|978-0944439036}}
• "The Angler's Coast" (Clark City Press, revised, 1990) {{ISBN|978-0944439128}}
• "Russell Chatham: One Hundred Paintings" (Clark City Press, 1990) {{ISBN|978-0944439241}}

{{reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chatham, Russell}}

Category:1939 births

Category:2019 deaths

Category:20th-century American painters

Category:American male painters

Category:21st-century American painters

Category:Artists from San Francisco

Category:Artists from Montana

Category:People from Livingston, Montana

Category:Angling writers

Category:20th-century American male artists