A Conversation With July Featured Artist Amie Campbell
It’s been an interesting past three months. How has your work been affected by the coronavirus?
The invisible but ever so real virus has had a devastating impact, and I have empathy for those who are suffering and will suffer until society can find a cure. My mind needs to be quiet when I paint, emptied of surface chatter. The impact of the pandemic initially was an inability to create. I love to draw with pencils on paper, so I started with drawing. Eventually the warmth of spring enticed me outside, called by the awakening sounds of birds. I took in the sun’s glow casting itself on the tops of trees not yet in full leaf. Then I was ready for painting, the task of making compositions and placing color on canvas.
Some of your work is made up of multiple panels, including diptychs, triptychs, and quadriptychs. What are the benefits and drawbacks to painting in these formats?
Panels bring flexibility to my work, an allusion of never-ending painting. They also allow for different groupings on the wall. My images can echo and replay in harmonies in different ways. Bonnard and Vuillard envisioned painting as design, and I am influenced by them as I paint on multiple surfaces that can be one painting or separated into many paintings.
Your work is composed of intricate brushwork. Can you talk about the variety of brushstrokes you use in your work?
I am more invested in color than brushwork. I am interested in the interplay of colors, and the brushwork allows me to dance across the canvas.
How is the work in this exhibit similar to and/or different from your previous work?
An artist’s work slowly evolves. I am seasonal, and I notice how they reflect what happens outside and how it comes to me and onto the canvas.
You utilize very vibrant colors in your paintings. Can you talk about your approach to color?
I spend time before I begin to paint by mixing colors. I work in Golden Acrylics, which I purchases in multiple colors and then combine into my own variations. When I use colors, context is important: each painting creates a reality that calls me to add color. Color is a sound to me, and painting is similar to composing a piece of music.
