Issue 3 Artist Spotlight | Cameron White
C+B: Tell us about yourself, Cameron!
CW: Living in the north of the UK close to the border with Scotland, I try to get out walking most days and often walk with my family and dogs too. I'm fortunate enough to work part time and so have a few hours a week to dedicate to my artwork and painting the scenes that I see in my local area. The forever changing colours of the landscape depending on the season and weather always inspires me. Despite living close to the beautiful Lake District in Cumbria, I rarely visit the mountains and tend to see the beauty in often overlooked rural fields, hillsides and coastline of northern Cumbria.
C+B: How has your relationship with your work changed since you first started creating?
CW: Having recently returned to painting after a long break whilst my children were young, I'm gaining a renewed confidence in my ability as an artist specialising in landscapes. Years ago, I was taught how to paint using watercolours by my father and for a long time, preferred this medium or used dry mediums such as coloured pencil or oil pastel. However, I began to use acrylic paints a few years ago and whilst I have also dabbled in oil paints, my preference is for acrylic paints due to the depth of colour and fast drying qualities they possess. I've recently started to paint more figuratively, using my photographs as a basis for my work and am greatly enjoying the process.
C+B: Share some details about your process for creating.
CW: I'm very lucky to have a dedicated room in the house that I use for painting and there is plenty of natural light which I very much enjoy. Although I could work in the evenings, I much prefer to work when the natural light is good during the day and take the opportunity to get into the studio whenever I can! There are often other things going on during the course of the day and so I have to grab the time if possible. Once I get down to painting, I often lose track of the time and can happily work for a few hours at a time. My small digital radio is often on in the background and I enjoy listening to classical music. I do take regular breaks as I find this keeps my approach fresh and means I can evaluate my progress better this way.
C+B: What is the one accomplishment you most hope to achieve in your creative career?
CW: It is still early days in terms of my painting career however I very much hope to show my work in galleries or other venues in the north of the UK this year or next. I'd also love to have a painting accepted by the Royal Academy and to be shown in the Summer Exhibition that is held every year at their beautiful gallery in London. That would indeed be an achievement!
Find and support Cameron here:
(Above The Land, 20 x 20 cm, acrylic on canvas, ©Cameron White)
If my work was a meal it would be: My work could be described like an omelette; the delicious golden eggs being the landscape base and the tasty toppings such as onions, cheese or ham the different colours, textures and composition of the work. Depending on what tasty options you like to put into your omelette depends on the mood, atmosphere or feeling of the work! A landscape can be fairly plain or richly and intensely flavoured with colour.
I would love to be able to share my work with: Being a huge fan of the late Eric Ravilious (1903 - 1942), I'd have greatly enjoyed showing this British painter my work and having a chat with him about his processes. He was a specialist of landscape painting in the 1930's and early 1940's and also worked as a war artist, observing and recording visually what he saw during the start of the second world war. However, his paintings of sweeping hillsides and coastlines are also superb and very inspiring too. I'm sure he would have given great advice!
If I were to work in another medium, I would choose: Having a great admiration of artists who work in three dimensions, I'd very much like to try creating work in three dimensions; perhaps pottery. Whilst at school, I made a few pieces using clay and very much enjoyed the process and the nice surprise when the clay had been glazed and fired.
My hope for those viewing my work: My hope is that people of all ages can enjoy the 'unsung' beauty of the British landscape when they see my paintings. My work is often about places that are fairly normal and typical scenes that you might see anywhere in the UK and so, I hope, this is something that people can identify with or feel a sense of familiarity with. Most of my paintings depict places that are very close to where I live due to having less opportunity to travel over the past couple of years. I hope that people may be encouraged to take a renewed enjoyment from their local areas and appreciate that we can see beauty in the places that we see on a regular basis; the fields that line the roadside or the little patch of trees on a hillside for example.
