About

b. New Forest, England (1963), currently working in Bristol.

I am a landscape artist working primarily in oils. Moved  by weather and the changing light it creates in the landscape, I recreate these internal moods in my work. I am drawn to the empty moorlands,  wild coastlines and mountain landscapes of the UK, taking inspiration from the work of Joan Eardley and Kurt Jackson.

Having trained in printmaking at The Bristol School of Art alongside a career in teaching in schools and prisons, I now prefer to work in oil. 

I experience the landscape by running, cycling and walking in it. Painting preliminary sketches en plein air, these are then worked into oil paintings, whereby layers of glazes are perfected and destroyed until the desired finish emerges. Oil paint is applied using found objects such as seaweed and grasses alongside traditional brushes and palette knives.

"During lockdown, Bev Campbell noticed how the birds sang differently; they were louder, their phrases more assertive. Her son made recordings of the dawn chorus, which inspired a new body of work for Campbell. Her minimal paintings are based upon a unique alphabet of sound she has created. Listening to this recording, she visualised different notes as different marks, creating a visual alphabet. These note-marks are then recomposed on Japanese paper or linen. Her pieces balance sensuality and simplicity: there is a tension in her canvases, their minimal design allowing the viewer space and light. Birdsong symbolises a primeval connection to the landscape. It was a sound which signalled to neolithic man that a landscape was safe to inhabit. Birdsong still carries this connotation of optimism, a feeling of being held by the landscape: you hear the birds, and you are not alone." (interviewed by art writer Kate Reeves -Edwards)