Video: Watch Jack Russell demonstrate his artistic skills >>

Jack Russell was one of cricket’s great eccentrics. With his battered hat and his habit of chain-drinking tea, he spent a decade keeping wicket for England and became a cult hero in the process.

But during the latter half of his playing career, Russell taught himself to paint. And now free from the constraints of training and playing, he works as a full time artist.

His cricket pictures sell for thousands of pounds, but in recent years he’s begun to paint landscapes, inspired by the work of Constable. But he insists his greatest challenge was the self-portrait he painted as soon as he retired from cricket.

Last month Sky Arts caught up with Russell in the midst of the Gloucstershire countryside…..

For more cricketer-turned-artist action, find out what a certain ex England cricket captain has been up to lately, watch Working Space: Michael Vaughan