Contact & Bios

Susan Russell Hall & Terry Rishel were introduced by a mutual friend who saw the potential of pairing their work: Susan's encaustics and Terry's photography.

Their vision exploded into large format art with archival ~ vintage subjects that one might find on some ancient wall or forgotten painting. The subjects in their work include florals, parks, and abstracts in nature. These areas of exploration are a desire for both Susan & Terry independently.

Their inherent love of photography, encaustics, and paint blend to create these exquisite works. They discovered that by robbing certain aspects of the subjects, such as focus and color, or increasing vignette, then engaging that with encaustic wax layers, patina, and oil paints, their art was found and embraced.

As their collaboration progressed, they both found that each individual art piece told them in very clear language what their direction should be...and they learned to listen.

Susan Russell Hall

Susan has worked in a number of mediums, her main focus over the last 15 years being encaustics, the ancient art of layering wax and incorporating pigment.

She began in 1979 as a medical illustrator at Seattle Children's Hospital, moving to Mary Bridge Children's Hospital in 1998. Over the years, she has created more than 6500 individual heart drawings. These intricate works of art are created by using charcoal, graphite, and colored pencil. All the while, Susan explored other mediums, such as acrylic and oil painting and eventually pyrographs, the actual art of painting with fire.

Susan has been consistently drawn to the wax workings of encaustics, most recently collaborating with renowned photographer, Terry Rishel.

Terry Rishel

Terry's photography began in 1980, shooting abstracts in nature and soon progressed to medium and large format cameras, photographing commercial, architecture, nature, weddings, etc. He then opened a photo studio with friends in Tacoma, WA. Over the years, Terry has received multiple photographic awards with noted companies, such as Nikon, Polaroid, Hasselblad, Illford, etc. From 1991-2009, Terry became Dale Chihuly's head photographer, as well as studio manager for Chihuly Studio One (TS-1). Traveling with Chihuly for many years, he photographed over fifty fine art books, as well as hundreds of thousands of photos from around the world. Terry and his crew mocked up and built many installations and complex lighting scenarios. With the onset of digital photography and an intense interest in florals, the work continues.

Terry's work evolves with this floral and garden study in collaboration with International Encaustic Artists nominee, Susan Russell Hall.

As separate artists, we both have a curious nature. Because of this drive to embrace the unknown, we have always loved consulting on large public and private art projects. If you have an interest in our work and believe our aesthetic may fit your space... Please contact us!

Susan Russell Hall
susanrussellhall@gmail.com
253-973-2242
www.susanrussellhall.com

Terry Rishel
terrymrishel@comcast.net
253-691-8559