VW Camper

Russ' wife on top of the camper

“If I go away with my wife, we always have the best night’s sleep in it,” says oil painter Russ Chester of his white and orange 1978 Volkswagen campervan.

“Recently, we’ve been saying that we haven’t been sleeping well and that we’ll have to go away in the camper to get a good night’s sleep!”

It is fair to say that Russ is passionate about his camper. “I absolutely love it but it’s always breaking down. It can test your patience sometimes. It kicks me in the teeth and causes me great expense!”

Russ’s model - with a bay window – the sweeping sheet of glass around the front - is fitted with a toilet and a cooker. It has a white top, too. The original engine has been rebuilt twice.

“It’s left hand drive and the distance is in kilometres,” he says, adding that it’s parked outside the front of the house, on the kerbside in a very quite area.

During the Covid lockdown “it was our saviour”. “At the end of the day I would trot out of the house and sit in the camper, have a glass of wine or beer. I found that once I’d finished painting for the day and completed all the associated paperwork, I’d go and sit in the van and decide what to do next. It became an extension of my office.” 

Russ inside his beloved camper

For more information about Russ visit: russchester.weebly.com