The Art CoacH

As an artist, Bennett's studio practice encompasses painting, drawing, printmaking, graphic design, ceramics, and three dimensional work, with portraiture and pop-culture subjects reoccurring throughout his work. his subjects often include musical and cultural figures, sports heroes, personal memories, and the occasionally absurd. His work ranges from traditional portraiture to mixed media paintings and hand-pulled relief prints, often combining the technical processes with humor, nostalgia, and visual social commentary. 

One of Russell’s more unusual projects was "The Warrior," a painting commemorating the career of Tennessee coaching legend Charlie Bayless. Art prints of the work were produced to benefit the Charlie and Jane Bayless Scholarship, with Russell donating proceeds from their sale to the scholarship.

Throughout his career, Russell has exhibited his work in numerous group and solo exhibitions across Tennessee and Virginia. His five solo exhibitions have included Slapdash (2012), which brought together a broad range of work from the preceding decade, including portraiture, CD package design, ceramics, and painting. His traveling exhibition Art, Religion and the Human Condition was presented at First Free Will Baptist Church in Elizabethton, Belmont University in Nashville, and the Renaissance Center in Kingsport. In 2008, while teaching ceramics, Russell curated Eye to Eye: Instructor and His Pupils, a joint exhibition of his work and that of his students at the Johnson City Area Arts Council Gallery. His ART365 project (2010) challenged him to create and share a small artwork every day for a year using social media as both studio and exhibition space.

Beyond the gallery, Russell has long used his artwork in support of his community, donating original works to charitable auctions, fundraisers, and local organizations. His professional art and design work has included paintings, posters, marketing materials, album and CD package designs, and other projects for clients including the Jerry Lee Lewis Estate, Ernie Haase & Signature Sound, Tribute Media Source, regional musicians, and print publications.

His artwork is held in private and public collections throughout the United States and abroad.

As an art educator, Russell has taught learners at all levels since 1994. Throughout his career, he has created multiple school art programs from the ground up, authored a Goals 2000 grant, and regularly provided opportunities for students to exhibit their work beyond the classroom. He was named the Tennessee Art Education Association’s Outstanding Art Educator of the Year in 2005 and received the Tennessee Arts Academy Teacher Hero Award in 2026.

Russell currently teaches high school art, with courses spanning design, printmaking, painting, and Advanced Placement Studio Art. His students have earned numerous awards and honors in local, regional, and national competitions, including recognition from the United States House of Representatives. Students from his program placed first in Tennessee’s First Congressional District in the Congressional Art Competition in both 2021 and 2023, with additional second- and third-place finishes in those competitions. Russell was named Congressional Art Teacher of the Year in both 2021 and 2023.

Beyond his classroom, Russell has contributed to art education at the state and national levels. He has worked with the Tennessee Department of Education on visual art curriculum revisions and standards development and has served as a PRAXIS art content-area consultant. He has conducted workshops and other professional learning opportunities for organizations including the National Art Education Association, Tennessee Art Education Association, and the Johnson City Area Arts Council. At his high school, he was instrumental in establishing an Alumni Legacy Gallery celebrating the continuing accomplishments of former art students.

Having taught more than 6,000 students over the course of his career, Russell has seen many of those students go on to careers in graphic design, photography, art education, animation, and other creative fields. For Russell, the lasting measure of an art education is not simply what students create in the classroom, but what they carry with them after they leave it.

As an art advocate, Russell has spent much of his career working to strengthen art education and expand opportunities for artists, students, and communities. He served on the executive board of the Tennessee Art Education Association for more than a decade, including four years as membership chair, during which TAEA membership more than doubled. In 2002, he was elected by his peers to serve as TAEA President, a seven-year term that included planning three statewide art education conferences, leading executive board meetings, coordinating state-level awards programs, and representing Tennessee art educators through the National Art Education Association.

Russell served art educators through the Tennessee Arts Academy, where he has been a facilitator and presenter more than a dozen times since 1997. He has also served as a juror for Scholastic Art exhibitions and has contributed his time and talents to local arts organizations, churches, senior programs, and other community arts initiatives. His service has been recognized with the 2003 Distinguished Service Award from the Alabama Art Education Association and the 2004 Arts Leadership Award from the Arts Council of Greater Kingsport.

In 2024, Russell established the Russell C. Bennett Alumni Art Award at his alma mater, Happy Valley High School in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Each year, the award provides a monetary prize to a senior art student for a selected work, which is then placed on loan to the school as a lasting reminder of the student’s time there.

Russell’s belief that supporting art education means investing not only in today’s students, but also in the artistic legacy they leave behind.