Francis Wighton Flint, a watercolor artist and designer, the father and early on teacher of Russell Flint. Under those circumstances, Russell certainly had had the background for an artistic career which he pursued with great encouragement by his father.

Russell attended Daniel Stewarts College and later entered the Royal Institution School of Art in Edinburgh. Here he learned the ground rules of line and color which he was to develop into his own distinctive style. However, like his father’s affinity for design, it was a six year apprenticeship as a draftsman at a large printing workshop in Edinburgh gave him the necessary discipline required by all great artists. Francis Wighton Flint continued his artistic endeavors the to last days of his life.