LAIRD CAMPBELL was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and immigrated to Canada in 1965 to work as an Exhibition and Display Artist at the World’s Fair, Montreal, Expo’ 67. He has lived on Vancouver Island for over 30 years. Since the late 60’s he has executed works in photography, glass, bronze, paper, canvas, and wood, and has exhibited in Canada, the USA, and Overseas. For the past three decades, Laird has worked with salvaged wood. The process is of assembledge. In 2008, Laird commissioned on art photographer and print-maker to create limited reproductions of some of the images. These fine art paper prints are cold-mounted on board and hand-varnished to ensure archival longevity. Glass in not necessary when framing.

“GULF ISLAND TRYPTYCH” BY LAIRD CAMPBELL. VARNISHED GICLEE PRINT FRAMED 24″ X 60″. $1200

Varinished Giclee Prints. How these Prints are Made: The artwork is photographed using a high definition camera and lit to capture 3D quality. Printing uses pigmented light- fast inks on cold-pressed fine art paper. The print is cold-handmounted on board, then coated using an artist-grade acrylic medium and an ultra violet filler. This process ensures archival longevity. Glass is not necessary. The print face may be wiped with a clean cloth dampened with clean water only.

Frottage. Frottage is the technique or process of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface to form the basis of a work of art.

The Art of Laird Campbell — by Grenfell Featherstone

The wainscot from an old hotel, the faded water-stained and sun-blanched keel from a derelict boat, some old fencing, bits of this and that-found objects with texture and colour-all these things are and are not what they seem.

Sawn into shapes and fitted together into abstract mosaics, they take on new life as the sinuous curve of a hip that is and is not, posed in front of a cubist backdrop of deconstructed reflections. They become totems set against a jigsaw puzzle of sky and forest. They create an angular architecture that slices shapes out of meticulously random assemblages of grained weatherworn chips of repurposed junk. An Arthur Erikson building that is not there at all is reflected in a pool that is not a pool and whose surface is not of the angled walls behind it. The hulls of overturned dories are piled like whales on a beach that merely satisfies the eyes’ need for a beach.

The profile of a face, a mask, a figure, buildings, a landscape, a table-all these images are so shrewdly abstracted and constructed out of such unlikely materials that their emergence, serene and innocent, creates a tension and irony that is almost metaphysical. (T.S. Eliot when writing of the poetry of John Donne described a metaphysical image as when “heterogeneous ideas are yoked by violence [intellectual vigour] together.”)

This description captures something of the art of Laird Campbell. He is an imaginative powerhouse of an artist. He is an assembler, a builder, and a maker. His palate of found objects and retextured and repurposed bits of detritus is so artfully managed and so intelligently and sensitively reimagined and crafted that his pieces are greater than the sum of their parts. His images leave the particular behind and resonate with something universal and transcendent. What more could an artist want?

“AUTUMN EQUINOX – EAST SOOKE PARK” BY MISHA SMART. GICLEE PRINT ON CANVAS 20″ X 40″

Misha Smart

Bio

I grew up on Piers Island where I was surrounded by tall trees, sandy shores, and a salty breeze. I spent my days hunting for crabs, building forts in the mossy forest and riding my bike along the dirt road. I spent my nights swimming in the phosphorescence and sleeping outside, waiting for the next shooting star. I continue to do these things today and encourage anyone taking the time to read this to do the same. These experiences do not tire with age.

Through the works I produce, I aim to share my vision of the West Coast of Canada. Those who have experienced this magical place know the wonders it beholds and the sense of freedom and empowerment it instills. I feel so fortunate to live in such a place and aspire to communicate this with my audience.