Peter Campbell

Peter Campbell seeks to convey an intimate and personal reaction to nature. His oils capture the quiet of dawn, twilight and moonlight, tapping into the spirit world that lingers in all of us. By limiting his palette and omitting details, Peter effectively creates an atmosphere, a mood, sometimes even a dream-like world which is open to each viewer's interpretation.

Fleeting glimpses are the spark behind many of Peter Campbell's landscape paintings. Out of the corner of his eye he will see something that catches his fancy and inspires him to paint. The challenge comes, he says, in trying to transfer that instant response to canvas. "You almost have to fight to hold on to that original idea," he says. ‘It takes a lot of work to develop that glimpse into the work you're trying to produce.'

Campbell started his artistic career as a photographer, studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. While he honed his photography skills, painting became his passion, and he started painting full-time after moving to Colorado in 1999. He says his photographic background comes in handy when he's working on his landscapes, which are often abstracted views of nature. "Photographers are able to look at the world and imagine a frame around it, seeing the shapes interact with each other," he says. The life of an artist suits Campbell well, and his goals are simple: to continue pursuing his passion for painting.

"Once you start down the road of art and painting, it's a drug,' he says. ‘I'm not happy if I'm not painting." Campbell finds inspiration in the mountains, desert and ever-changing light.' He says, "I work mainly on location to get a direct connection with the landscape. I believe this gets the ‘outside' into a painting, giving it elements that make it alive.'

Peter Campbell was featured as an "Artist to Watch" in the May 2003 issue of Southwest Magazine, and has gained acclaim, as well as a loyal following of fans and collectors of his work.