July 28 - Local painter attends New Westminster Cultural Crawl at Amelia Douglas Gallery

Jack Campbell, an artist who has been painting the Fraser River and other waterways for more than 60 years, will be in attendance at the Amelia Douglas Gallery at Douglas College during the New Westminster Cultural Crawl next month.

On Aug. 13 and 14, the two days of the crawl, Campbell will be on hand 11am-5pm to meet visitors and discuss the paintings and drawings in his latest exhibit, Fraser River and the Gulf Islands.

Campbell, 80, was born and raised in New Westminster and has lived on Saturna Island for 14 years. He began painting the Fraser in the late 1940s and has been painting scenes of waterways ever since.

"The Fraser will always be very important to me," Campbell says, "from the building of the bridges, to the mills, to the use of the old beehive burners that would burn sawdust from the mills. There is constant activity on the river - the fishing boats, the tugs. Now, on the Gulf Islands, I've gone from fresh water to salt water and sea life, and it's a nice feeling between the two."

Campbell says he takes a "semi-design" approach to his paintings, working with shapes and "pieces of colour" - some abstract, others more realistic - rather than from a photographic perspective.

"I mainly work in three areas: water scape, landscape and the human form. I first use the subject matter as a point of departure. Then, through a process of selection, simplifying and elimination, with the use of tone and colour, I arrange the compositional elements to create a final piece of art to my satisfaction."

Fraser River and the Gulf Islands runs Aug. 13-Sept. 9 at the Amelia Douglas Gallery, fourth floor, Douglas College, 700 Royal Ave. Free admission. The closing reception is Sept. 8, 4:30-7:30pm.

Campbell will also appear at the gallery Sept. 9 at 10am to give a talk on this exhibit.

For more information on the New Westminster Cultural Crawl, see newwestculturalcrawl.com.

Spirit of the Fraser, by Jack Campbell