Jack Russell was born on 15 August 1963 in Stroud, Gloucestershire. As a child, he attended Archway School in Stroud, and first began playing cricket at the local Stroud Cricket Club. He was scouted by Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, where he made his first class debut in 1981 at the age of seventeen whilst still at Sixth Form at Archway. The following year, he enrolled at Bristol Technical College to study accountancy, but left after three months to play first class cricket full time.
Jack made his international debut in a One Day International against Pakistan in Peshawar on 22 November 1987. He was called up to the England Test team in 1988 and made his debut at Lords on 25 August, making a score of 94 and almost becoming the first English player to make a century as a nightwatchman.
Over the course of his career, Jack went on to play 40 ODIs and 54 Tests for England. He scored two Test centuries, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1989 and against India at Lords in 1996. In a Test match between England and South Africa in Johannesburg in November-December 1995, Jack set a world record for the number of catches taken in a Test, with eleven. He was named a Wisden Cricket of the Year in 1990 and in the 1996 Birthday Honours, he was appointed an MBE for services to cricket. He retired from international cricket in 1998. He remained at Gloucestershire for his entire career, playing 944 games for them before retiring in 2004 at the age of 40.
Though Jack Russell was always interested in art growing up, he did not study it at school, received no formal training and is self-taught as an artist. He first began drawing and painting as a way to pass the time during breaks in play due to rain. During his first tour with England, to Pakistan in 1987, Jack featured in just two days of cricket over the course of eight weeks, allowing him time to produce enough drawings and sketches to hold his first exhibition in a gallery in Bristol on his return to England.
Since his retirement from cricket in 2004, Jack has become a full-time artist, painting a huge range of subjects, from landscapes and wildlife, to military scenes and his iconic cricket pictures. He is also an accomplished portrait painter, counting the likes of HRH Duke of Edinburgh, HRH Duke of Kent, Sir Norman Wisdom, Eric Clapton and Sir Bobby Charlton amongst his sitters. Jack's paintings have been exhibited worldwide and hang in private collections from the Tower of London to The Bradman Museum in Bowral, NSW.
In 2018, Jack held his first solo exhibition at Chris Beetles Gallery, which was opened by Lord MacLaurin, former President of the ECB and MCC. He has continually been a main feature in the annual Chris Beetles Cricket Show, and in 2023 Jack celebrated his 60th birthday with a show titled '60 Years, 60 Pictures' with new cricket and landscape paintings. In May 2024, Jack's painting Tommy Clough Prisoner of War was exhibited in the Royal Portrait Society annual show at the Mall Galleries, London.
