Russell Collection started in 2002 as a fine art gallery in Austin, Texas.
For years, it was one of the city’s most respected places to see and buy museum-quality art. Original works by Picasso, Matisse, Dalí, Chagall, Cassatt, and Pissarro all hung on its walls. The New York Times called it one of Austin’s most exclusive galleries.
That was then.
Today, Russell Collection is a digital art gallery and painting education platform. The physical space is gone, but the mission stayed the same: make great art accessible, and help people actually understand what they’re looking at.
We write about painting. How it works, why it works, who did it best, and how you can do it yourself.
What We Cover
Every article starts with the same question: what can a painter actually learn from this?
We don’t write fluff pieces. If we’re profiling Vermeer, we’re breaking down his glazing technique, not just listing his birth year. If we’re explaining color theory, we’re showing you how to mix skin tones that look like real skin.
Here’s what we publish:
- Oil Painting. Glazing, impasto, alla prima, underpainting, and step-by-step technique guides.
- Acrylic Painting. Palette knife work, splattering, sgraffito, blending, and drying-time strategies.
- Watercolor. Wet-on-wet, masking fluid, paper selection, and how to stop your paper from warping.
- Color Theory. The color wheel, complementary palettes, mixing greens without mud, and how the masters used color.
- Famous Artists. Deep profiles on the painters who shaped art history, from the Renaissance through abstract expressionism.
- Famous Paintings. The stories, techniques, and hidden details behind iconic works.
- Painting Basics. Composition, balance, pictorial space, and the principles that make a painting hold together.
- Art Movements. Renaissance, Baroque, Impressionism, Futurism, Op Art, and everything between.
Who Runs This
Bogdan Sandu has been drawing since he was five. Art competitions as a kid, then a career in graphic design, illustration, and web design starting in 2008. He’s built logos, UI kits, original typefaces, and editorial content for the design industry for over fifteen years.
His writing has appeared in Designmodo, WebDesignerDepot, Speckyboy, Slider Revolution, Bittbox, and VandelayDesign. He also founded Design Your Way, an independent design blog and educational resource that’s been running since 2008.
At Russell Collection, Bogdan brings studio experience and art historical knowledge together into content that’s both technically solid and useful. Whether you’re picking up a brush for the first time or refining a technique you’ve used for years, the goal is the same: you leave knowing something you didn’t before.
The Weekly Art Digest
Every Tuesday, over 4,200 readers get a curated email. Masterwork breakdowns, technique guides, artist profiles. No spam, no filler.
Subscribe on the homepage or at the bottom of any article.
The Gallery Behind the Blog
This part matters, and it’s what separates Russell Collection from every other painting blog on the internet.
Russell Collection wasn’t born as a blog. It was a working fine art gallery in Austin’s gallery district, founded in 2002. For years it hosted exhibitions featuring some of the biggest names in art history. Picasso. Matisse. Salvador Dalí. Marc Chagall. Mary Cassatt. Camille Pissarro. It also showed contemporary and local Austin artists alongside those heavyweights.
That history shapes everything we publish.
When we write about oil painting technique, it’s informed by years of standing inches from original canvases by the artists we profile. When we break down how Dalí used color, we’re not guessing from a textbook.
The move from physical gallery to digital platform happened because the audience for great art shouldn’t depend on geography. Russell Collection now reaches readers in dozens of countries. The standard we hold ourselves to hasn’t changed: museum-quality knowledge, communicated clearly enough to be useful.
Featured In
Russell Collection has been covered by:
- Artnet News
- The New York Times
- Austin Chronicle
- The Austinot
- Singulart
- foundingAUSTIN
Contact
We like hearing from artists, collectors, educators, and people who just love looking at paintings.