Russell Frost Painted All His Life

Russell Frost, chain-painting and chain-smoking in a cabin-hideaway alongside his artist-wife, used to sell canvases as soon as they were done - often before.

Once he had to take off in a motor home to evade fans who found their way to his door.

He was not as famous as his artist friends Kenneth Callahan, Mark Tobey or Eustace Ziegler. He disliked publicity and never had a phone. But his works, sold cheaply to aficionados who collected them by the hundreds, were in museums, homes and offices from Seattle to New York.

"What I liked about his work is that it was not formula art, it was not predictable," said Wally Funk, a collector in Anacortes. "The scope of his interest was tremendous. He would do abstracts, to things reminiscent of Rembrandt.

"He had this boat in levitation with a child holding a lantern, going on a journey . . . then he had this painting of an egg, beautifully rendered, with a trap door through which emanated an eerie red glow. He called that `Temporary Housing.' You never knew what he would come up with."

Mr. Frost died Thursday, Nov. 7, of cancer. He was 69.

Born in Port Angeles, he always loved art. At age 15 he apprenticed to Ziegler, spending several years just watching the elder artist paint.

Mr. Frost served in the Army infantry in World War II, apprenticing briefly to a combat artist.

Then he studied at Burnley School of Art in Seattle, and at Cornish Institute, where he met his wife, Betty Frost, now of Camano Island. They married in 1949 and became a team, living in picturesque settings around Puget Sound. He built many of the cabins. He also built boats.

Mainly he painted. He often had a dozen canvases going, and frequently sold them to pay the light bill or to buy materials for his next piece.

"When art is working, it paints for you," Russell once said. "Logic wrecks it. I don't know when a painting is finished until Betty says, `For God's sake, stop working on it.' "

When times were tough he told his wife he was going to get a job. She burst into tears and begged him not to.

The Frosts got lucky when the Findlay Galleries in New York mounted an exhibition of their work. But it opened Nov. 22, 1963 - the day President Kennedy was shot.

Their works enjoyed a surge of popularity in the 1980s, when figurative painting returned to favor. But Mr. Frost painted well-drawn people and scenes not popular in that day.

Other survivors include his son, Michael Frost, of Coupeville, Whidbey Island, four grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. No services are planned.