Art Show: Time and Place – Jane Campling and Amy Dury ** 5-20 Mar 2022 ** Cameron Contemporary Art, Hove

Introduction

Jane Campling’s practice involves walking, drawing, looking, painting and reflection – both in the South Downs landscape and in her studio. The paintings can be viewed meditatively and purely for themselves; or viewed with recourse to some vestige of landscape memories, special times and lived experiences from the viewer.  Time and place as experience. 

— Geoff Hands 2022

‘My subject matter is mostly figurative, I am naturally drawn to imagery from the past, and use archive film and photographs for sources. The activity of choosing imagery and selecting composition is key to the final outcome.

Key themes are innocence, freedom, friendship, connection and family. Sometimes these are shot through with threat or questions of roles – the notions of gender and the dynamics of power.’

— Amy Dury 2022

Geoff Hands on Jane Campling’s work and practice

Jane Campling’s practice involves walking, drawing, looking, painting and reflection – both in the South Downs landscape and back in her studio. The paintings can be viewed meditatively and purely for themselves; or viewed with recourse to some vestige of landscape memories, special times and lived experiences from the viewer. Time and place as experience. 

We might have a sense of the fleeting reality of nature from the works, of the sometimes restless moment, and are coaxed into acknowledging the discord as well as the harmony of the physical world. The paintings are characterised by a gestural form of shorthand, quick decision-making, and working with qualities and traits of the paint medium. 

A subtle expressionism is employed that approaches a cohesive colour/shape minimalism. Tonal qualities are as important as a clear interest in colour combinations. So too with mark making, whereby the drawn qualities of shape and line might provide contrast or harmony within a composition, especially when the linear content of lines and edges coalesce. Layered and woven colour shapes are consistently under control to provide depth and rhythm, so that the viewer’s looking is active.

The writer Louise Ramsay responds to Amy Dury’s painting ‘Wild Boys’

Ahead of Johnny was his older brother Mark, and Mark’s friend Adam, then some younger boys who wanted to be just like them. At seventeen, Mark was already bearded like their father. But he was nothing like him. Mark lead the boys to the river, each of them treading within his footprints.
By the time Johnny reached the water, their imprints had dragged treacherous slopes into the riverbank. Johnny slipped and fell, then remained where he was, watching as the others jumped, dived and slid into the river. He watched Mark slap the surface with his palms and Adam push another boy under. It was the first warm day of summer. The first day Johnny took off his shirt and felt the sun on his shoulders, burning more fiercely than it had on the generations before him. By evening, his back would be raw and red, and his night would be sleepless, lying sheetless on top of the bed.
On the other side of the river, a family picnicked beneath a willow. Johnny squinted against the sunlight to see them. He strained to hear them above the boys’ laughter. Alone on the riverbank, he let himself remember his mother.

PRIVATE VIEW:

Friday 4th March 6pm – 8pm

EXHIBITION DATES:

Saturday 5th – Sunday 20th March

Gallery open Wednesday to Saturday from 10.30am—5pm. Sunday and Bank Holidays from 12pm—5pm
(closed Monday and Tuesday)

Cameron Contemporary Art,  1 Victoria Grove, 2nd Avenue, Brighton & Hove, BN3 2LJ

See more paintings on show and more details: http://www.cameroncontemporaryart.com/time-and-place-campling-dury