The Artist

The journey begins with the spirit of place and continues with the gathering and assemblage of raw materials to suit each painting. 

David Campbell is a contemporary visual artist living and working in Bermagui on Djiringanj Country of the Yuin Nation. Bermagui is a beautiful seaside community located on the South East Coast of NSW, Australia. David is a painter of abstracted landscapes and still life.

The coastal environment provides endless inspiration for the landscape work. The process explores the notions of pareidolia and ambiguity within the landscape through colour and form.

The choice of brush or palette knife is deliberate, allowing the element of chance to influence a painting's direction. It’s the interaction between tools, the medium and the surface that allows a separate and distinct life to emerge in the painting.

The choice to paint Still Life provides an ideal complement to Landscape painting. Painting Still Life offers an opportunity to explore, in a consciously constructed formality, the arrangement of objects in space.

The differences between the two genres are both explicit and nuanced, and they provoke and extend creative practice in limitless ways.

Painting with oils on 12oz canvas duck or board is a deliberate choice. Building the stretcher frames, cutting and stretching the canvas and then applying a size and primer is a rich part of the process allowing David full involvement from beginning to end.

  • David has been painting for many years but has benefited from the tuition and guidance of Nicole Kelly, Fiona Reeve, Claude Ciccone, and Joanne Royale.

    • Undergraduate Certificate in Fine Art. Curtin University 2026

    • Quietly Here painting selected by poet Ed Southorn for the cover of his 2026 volume of poetry

    • Finalist in River of Art Prize 2025 & 2024

    • Paintings with collections across Australia, United Kingdom and Germany

    • Finalist in Creators Mark Art Prize and Exhibition 2024

    • Completed short course at National Art School (Sydney campus) on Contemporary Landscapes Interior/ Exterior with Nicole Kelly

    • Finalist in the Harden Art Prize for landscape in 2023

    • Solo exhibition Coast Lines at Shop 7 Gallery Bermagui, 2023

    • Group exhibitions at Frame & Brush, Shop 7 Gallery and Narooma Art School Gallery

davidc@davidncampbell.com.au
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