The Cowboy Artist - Charles Russell - Version 4.6 Unlike many of the artists who painted the American West, Charles M. Russell did not have to pretend he was a part of it. An adventurous and rugged individual, Russell began painting as something of a visual journal of his own adventures, of the incidents he witnessed, the stories and tales he was told and for his own pleasure. This screensaver presents 30 images from Russell's works of a once wild and free land.