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We are pleased to share this Peter Campbell Sopris Sun feature, highlighting the artist’s recent winter works at Ann Korologos Gallery, finding his landscape inspirations, and his painting method. Please read a preview of the article below.
By Geneviève Villamizar Published Jan. 5, 2022
“I have a triad, like a pie. In that pie, there’s what you see. There’s what you know. And there’s what you feel. The feel part is huge — it’s why you do what you do.”
Plein air painter Peter Campbell will be celebrating winter works at Korologos Gallery in Basalt this Saturday, Jan. 8.
“So, sometimes,” he continues, “if I’m plein air painting, I might accentuate what I see more than what I know or what I feel, because I’m trying to learn about what I see.”
It’s a Sunday morning in September; I’m taking him on what I imagine to be a jaunt “into” one of his own landscape paintings. The same muted hues that traverse his foregrounds run alongside us.
“Sometimes, it’s more about what I feel. I emphasize less what I know and what I see.” Indian summer pulls us to the shadier side of the road, and a magpie berates us. “So, it can be a combination of all three.”
We crest, pausing to breathe. Reshouldering his portable easel and tripod, Campbell takes in a 360 degree view: the Flat Tops, Missouri Heights, Sunlight and Sopris, layers on layers. Sheaves of light and shadowy folds hold a bowl of sky so alive and full; it beckons.
“So, if you’ve got the Wheaties,” I say, shading my eyes, pointing east across alfalfa, “that’s where we’re going — to the cemetery.”
“I got the Wheaties!” he grins. Charlottesville roots pull at his vowels and syllables.
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“For a painter to look at their painting from the eye of a viewer, and not be in love with their work? The best way to be a good artist, is to not think you’re doing anything special.”
Peter campbell
