Rose-Marie Cameron has always been artistic, from visual art to music to drama. As an arts teacher, art has always remained a part of her life, but it wasn't until a few years ago when Cameron rehashed her old passion.
After a 15-year break from pursuing visual art for herself, Cameron's first big city show was at the Art Beat Gallery in St. Albert in 2008. She sold a few paintings and has continued to sell privately since then.
Using mostly her hands and brush usually only for detail, Cameron paints landscapes she describes as “semi-realistic.” She says they have “little glimpses of reality in them,” which make them different.
Cameron likes the freedom of abstract paintings because she doesn't have to work inside the box. “And yet people can recognize things in it usually, or they might see something different than what I see, but that's OK too.”
To get an idea, she'll start with ink, let it flow and see where it takes her. “Then I'll find something in the medium and then work with it,” she says.
One of her more recent paintings, rich with orange, red and yellow is “Breakthrough” which she describes as a “release.”
“It's typical of my style, of the simple abstract style, but it has that edge to it, where you sort of break free.”
She describes another painting “Healing Light,” which features a sunset of various greens and an uneven reflection of the sun in the water.
“I usually go by feel more than by realism. I don't want to copy a photograph,” she says. “My strength I think is finding the feeling and the emotion in a painting.”
Cameron says it would be difficult to recreate her paintings, but she probably could. “But I think I would lose a little bit of the spontaneity,” she says. “A lot of times it takes experimentation to get to that point and the experimentation is just true experimentation, I don't really know what I'm [going to] get.”
She says that is part of the fun of it, but that it can also be frustrating. While she prefers to do a painting all at once, it doesn't always work out that way and she can never plan how long it will take.
Cameron will show her work at an art show Sept. 25-26 at Café Impromptu, where some of her work has been on display since the café's opening.
She will also debut her book, Rasmussen…the little fish with big dreams, at the show. She wrote and illustrated the children's book, which tells the story of a little fish looking for a family with a message of acceptance and adoption.
Cameron says she becomes attached to some of her paintings and doesn't want to sell them. She intended to donate “Healing Light” to the hospital last year, but ended up donating another one instead. She has donated her work to different charities, some local such as the Dream Wheels Weekend and the Lakeland Centre for FASD, and other larger groups such as the Canadian Artists for the Poor.
She recently donated a painting to the Society of Graphic Designers and in turn will have two of her paintings shown Oct. 7 at the Alberta Gallery of Art, where she would like to feature more of her work.
Her portfolio is at a gallery in Maple Ridge, B.C., where a decision is being made on whether she can have a full show there. She has had a show there in the past, but if selected this year, her show would be on a larger scale.
“I'm actually quite active in the art world, but there still are many avenues in the Edmonton area that I haven't really pursued yet,” she says.
Cameron's art show takes place at Café Impromptu from 5-9 p.m. on Sept. 25 and from 1-4 p.m. on Sept. 26.
“The people of Bonnyville have been really receptive to my work,” she says. “And I do appreciate that a lot because they always come to my sales and they seem to really enjoy my artwork and that makes me feel very satisfied.”
