Gordon Cameron RSA 1966-1994

The life of Gordon Cameron, R.S.A., who died in April 1994 aged 77 could not, by contemporary standards be considered eventful, or overly influenced by the popular romantic conception of artists, as genial roughnecks, or at best anti-social outsiders. Rather, he fell naturally into the temperamental category of artists such as Vuillard, who he greatly admired, both as painter andperson, and whose lifestyle like Gordon’s seemed to centre around the domestic scene, of which his wife Ellen Malcolm, R.S.A., was the central focus, and remaining so until he died.

Born in Aberdeen in 1916, the second of three brothers, he was educated at Robert Gordon's College, Aberdeen and then went onto Gray’s School of Art at the age of eighteen to study painting, first under James Cowie, R.S.A., for a short period, then latterly under Robert Sivell, R.S.A., whose teaching and powerful character were to have a pivotal influence on him, both as a painter and as a person of strong moral outlook.

Gray’s School of Art was then a small intimate art school with an enviable tradition dating back to the 1860’s, and it had recently appointed D.M.—Sutherland, R.S.A., as Principal. It was at this time first met Gordon Cameron while jammed around the studio sink washing our brushes and we struck up a friendship which continued until his death.

Under the tutelage of those three distinguished painters his natural talent was nurtured and developed and very early in his student career he began to attempt some large compositions of motifs from the farming community in the Black Isle, where he had spent his holidays on his uncle’sfarm, as a boy.

During his studentship he won the Davidson Gold Medal, the Brough Scholarship, and on the recommendation of Henry Lamb,R.A., the SED Travelling Scholarship, and on completion of his travels to Holland and France, was employed as a part-time lecturer in the School of Painting at Gray’s School of Art.

At this time also, there occurred two significant developments in his career-he became assistant to Robert Sivell in the execution of a large series of murals for the University of Aberdeen’s new Students’ Union-and he acquired the only real custom built studio to exist in Aberdeen, which rapidly became a meeting point for all the painters, students and literati, who were still around in 1940, for one reason or another.

Gordon and the painter Dan Stephen held court, painted, discussed, exhibited, had studio parties, and generated and promoted enthusiasm for the Arts, which carried on until the studio was demolished some years ago-the Bateau Lvoir, Aberdeen Style no less. The assistantship to Sivell was perhaps more intensely personal to him, since he was brought into close collaboration with Sivell on an actualproject, and on a one to one basis.

The mural project lasted from 1939 to 1954, and although the scheme and design for the mural panels were Sivell’s it was Gordon Cameron who did most of the actual painting now to be seen on the walls. The experience was invaluable and it was at this time that he also painted a large mural to decorate the end wall of the main hall in an Aberdeen School which is unfortunately now demolished.

In 1946 he was asked with Dan Stephen to illustrate a new Anatomy Book by Professor Lockhart of Aberdeen University and they asked me to join them in completing the work. In 1947 we also formed The 47 Group with a number of other painters. This was an exhibiting group which lasted until the middle 1950s under the benevolent guardianship of Gordon, until he left Aberdeen to go to Dundee where he took up a full-time post as lecturerer in The School of Painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1952.

His appointment was one of the main reasons for the revival of the School of Painting from its then rather inferior reputation in relation to the other Art Colleges as a training ground for painters. He was without doubt one of the finest exponents of the artof painting from life- the nude, the portrait and still-life and possessed the ability and empathy with his students’ problems to foster and develop individual talent. It is an indication of the respect he engendered when he was referred to among his students as Uncle Gordon.

In 1958 he was elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy and became a full Academician in 1971. He was a sincere and supportive member of the Academy and was ever ready to defend it against any unjust criticism. He was never a prolific artist but he was an artist of quality, never depending on a quick result but working steadily towards a sensitive interpretation of his emotional reaction towards something seen.

He was a slow, deliberate worker and often used to say to me that he found that the older he got he found it not any easier. He was hyper-critical of everything he did and tended to denigrate his best works as worthless in relation to the art of the past. As he got older he seemed to find solace in the work of Cezanne and more and more became entranced with his simplicity achieved as it was with such a deliberate and slow building of the elements of colour related to form.

He liked also the retiring temperament of Cezanne who did not count public admiration-this | think he felt as the sign of a true artist. He eschewed pomp and panoply much preferring simplicity and modesty. Like Cezanne he tended to retire from the arena of competition-and like Cezzane he was a true artist.

RSA Obituary by Alberto Morrocco, R.S.A. Transcribed from the 1994 RSA Annual Report