JEFFERY CAMP :: PETALLED FIGURES

About

This highly-focused exhibition of new work by Jeffery Camp comprises paintings from the last three years, mostly small in scale, that delight in the interplay between the human form and the exotic blossoms of the English garden. Inspired by his activities in the life room at the Royal Academy Schools, where he continues to work alongside students, and regular visits to Regents Park he has written that:

"Queen Mary's Rose Garden is so packed with blooms it is like an enormous fire of blossom and pollen. There is a border which runs parallel to the Broad Walk that possesses a wonderful mixture of flowers. They soar and plunge, ravishing in their perfumed beds, busy with insects: tiny wasps, bees and frantic bumble bees. When all goes well, daisies sing with poppies and lightly clothed adolescents play with petals and babies and cameras. I have tried to draw and paint this beautiful flow of subjects as fast as my teacher William Gillies. I have looked at Ruben's small panels and Courbet's pictures doused with flowers and apples and have surrounded posing models and self portraits with foliage and flowers."

A painter, draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor, Camp has produced work of outstanding quality which features in both public and private collections across the country. His paintings are distinguished by a rare sensitivity of touch ' the characteristic Camp dab ' which deploys colour and form with teasing exactness. It is no exaggeration to say that his paintings are explosive in their subtlety.

Born in Suffolk in 1923, Camp studied first at Lowestoft and Ipswich Schools of Art before moving to Edinburgh College of Art. He is also an author of distinction, whose immensely popular books Draw (1981) and Paint (1996), have taken home-based art instruction to new heights and in 2010 he co-published 'Almanac' with Art Space Gallery and the Royal Academy.

A 16 page catalogue with 18 colour plates accompanies the exhibition and can be viewed on line at www.artspacegallery.co.uk