Never Afraid to Test the
Water
Scottish artists have been pushing
the limits of watercolour painting for two centuries…
Perhaps the most extreme example of the use
of watercolour in a modernist context is William Johnstone, whose simple
monochrome paintings, redolent of Japanese calligraphy, resonate with a cool,
transcendental beauty.
A similar impetus is discernible in the
current show, in the work of young Scottish painter, Campbell
Sandilands.
Iain Gale, reviewing the RSW Annual
Exhibition 2002, at the McManus Galleries, Dundee.
"Caledonia’, March
2002
Basic Elements of Beauty
In spite of its diversity, some of the most compelling work on show at
Edinburgh's many Festival exhibitions shares a preoccupation with paring art
down to its fundamental forms. … Reduction has always been the norm in
Japanese art too. At the Royal Museum of Scotland, the Japanese master designer
Serizawa has a wonderful show mainly of his fabric designs. The Serizawa show
is part of Japan 2001, a follow-up from the successful Japan festival ten years
ago. Another Japan 2001 event is taking place at the Nexus Gallery in Bread
Street, where Scottish artist and student of the Japanese tradition of
calligraphy and brush painting, Campbell Sandilands, presents his own very
beautiful abstract painting along with an exhibition of the work of his mentor
in this Japanese tradition, the master calligrapher Shingai Tanaka.
Duncan Macmillan, reviewing 'Oya-ko' in Business a.m., 20 August 2001
'Scotsman' Edinburgh Festival reviews 2001, featuring Josef Albers *****, Sean
Scully ****, Shingai Tanaka & Campbell Sandilands: 'Oya-ko' ****, Paul
Furneaux ***
… Another artist who responds to different mediums is the Scot, Campbell
Sandilands. Showing his work alongside those of Shingai Tanaka, his mentor in
the demanding discipline of Japanese calligraphy, Sandilands has paintings,
woodblock prints and some ceramic pieces on display. All reflect the oriental
perception of the artist as a channel for the spirit, and his work suggests
delight in abstract gestures and in the innate physical characteristics of his
materials. These are works that invite the viewer to take a walk through their
own imaginations …
Neil Cameron, The Scotsman S2, 28 August 2001
IN THE FRAME Campbell Sandilands
Who is Sandilands?
Sandilands is a
promising rising star of contemporary Scottish art. Unusually, neither a
conceptualist nor a dabbler in angst-ridden expressionist figuration,
Sandilands is a painter and printmaker of abstracts. Born in 1962, he graduated
with a first, as a figurative artist, from Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art
in Dundee in 1984. A childhood fascination for the east, together with exposure
in 1985 to Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints, persuaded him to visit Japan. He
stayed for seven years, gaining his MA at Tokyo's Tama University. By the time
he returned to Scotland in 1995, Sandilands had embraced abstraction. The
principal catalyst in this sea change was a course in sho calligraphy taken in
Kyoto where his master was a Zen Buddhist. 'Sho', says Sandilands, 'allowed my
mind to empty and my subconscious to come into play'.
How do I
recognise his work?
Sandilands' abstraction is not of the
minimal variety epitomised by Callum Innes but gestural, recalling the
international experimental art of the 1950s - tachisme and Abstract
Expressionism. He revels in the power of the brushstroke, making calligraphic
marks reflecting his awareness of Zen philosophy and empathy with the ideas of
others such as Pollock, Alan Davie and Roger Hilton. In his woodcuts, often in
several colours, he will trace his own brush calligraphy on to a veneered board
and then trace this shape into the block, often adding extra marks to create a
diversity of texture.
What does
it mean?
Sandilands' work addresses the essence
of a physical or psychological sensation, capturing it in the spontaneity of
the gesture. The art of making the work is physically exhausting but Sandilands
sees it as meditative. Titles such as Earth Walk,Earth Prayer
(sic) and Japanese Sky reveal preoccupations with elemental force
and human emotion.
From Scotland on Sunday,
Spectrum Magazine, 13 September 1998
BIG IN JAPAN
The Good Red Road is the Native
American's expression for life's journey. So it is perhaps a little pretentious
to entitle a Scottish artist's exhibition of Japanese paintings with the
phrase. But then Campbell Sandilands did spend seven years living in Japan,
learning a craft from masters steeped in an ancient and disciplined tradition.
In his programme notes, Sandilands hints at what he has learnt when he talks of
the need to be still within in order to trust one's intuition. The truth of his
interpretation of life's experiences is what he hopes he has on
canvas.
Although basically abstract, the
paintings and woodcuts display a vitality and colour that suggest that the
journey of discovery, at least up until now, has been savoured and
enjoyed.
From 'The Scotsman',
Weekend magazine, 5 September 1998
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