‘The creative person should have no other biography than their works’
B Traven
Gallery by the Lakes is delighted to present KINSHIP, a solo exhibition of new paintings by acclaimed British artist Finn Campbell-Notman, winner of Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2023.
The gallery has had the privilege to show Finn's extraordinary expansive charcoal drawings and beautifully observed paintings over the last two years. So we are thrilled to be able to bring you his most recent works, a collection of paintings entitled KINSHIP. Finn explains his motivation and inspiration...
"There exists a view that there are two types of artist; one that addresses art history and another that addresses the present directly. I try to make work that both addresses the entirety of art history and that is contemporary (that could only be made now).
My aim is always to arrive at a synthesis in my work, both in form and content, where the divide is invisible and as such know when a piece works because there is an equilibrium and a poised tension between the two. It can be a high wire act.
In this way, and by not focussing on 'what I have to say', an inevitable byproduct emerges: the almost intangible 'authorial voice'. It's there but one cannot approach it too directly.
I also want my work to have elegance, a resilience and a sense of illumination especially in this new age of endarkenment- and for it to act as a counter to the infiltration and occupation of our imagination by A.I.
No tricks, no gimmicks, no grift.
If there is a kind of key or perhaps formula to my work then it derives from the reciprocal relationship between the Art Historical, the Environmental and Specificity (in location and material - i.e. the uses of forest fire charcoal or Dorset chalk)
The result I hope is that Nature is Culture and Habitat and Habit are unified.
My work can appear stagey or perhaps contrived but this is deliberate; the artifice should I think be apparent since I am engaged in the act of making images not taking images.
The result is a unique artifact, a permanent record: an artwork.
Art at its' best can then become an ethical activity and a way of being in and of the world: the artist a lens through which it is focused".
Finn Campbell-Notman 2026
Finn will be in the gallery every Saturday during his solo show from 12 - 3pm, all welcome.
