About Iain Cameron
Art has always been my thing. As a kid, it was the only thing I was good at. I learned to draw Snoopy at age 9, still my party trick to this day—fellow nine-year-olds are easily impressed! I attended Gray’s School of Art in Aberdeen, though my time there wasn’t the best fit for me. I did develop a deep love for art history and contemporary art during that time, before going on to work as a graphic designer.
Throughout my life, I’ve always painted, despite battling anxiety and chronic self-doubt. These struggles made it difficult to paint sometimes, or share my work, but now, I’m finally in a place where I feel confident enough to put my art on display.
My work spans abstract paintings, still lifes, and portraits. I aim to capture light, darkness, and the beauty of the everyday, exploring themes that are close to my heart. The process is always intuitive, and I let the emotion and atmosphere of the piece guide me. It’s been a long journey to get here, but I’m proud of what I’ve created and happy to share it with you.
Influences
My art influences are wide and varied, shaped by a mix of iconic artists and personal experiences. Joan Eardley was an early influence. I first encountered her work at Aberdeen Art Gallery as a seventeen year old, and I now see traces of her influence in my own paintings retrospectively. Eardley, who spent her final years in Catterline, south of Aberdeen, tragically died young, leaving us to mourn a great artist taken too soon. What strikes me most about her work is her use of color, the expressiveness and painterly quality, which captures the intensity of the landscape and the lives she painted. Her connection to the sea and the people of the area resonates deeply with me.
Other significant influences include Basquiat, Twombly, Hockney, Emin, Rembrandt, Modigliani, and Manet—each inspiring me in different ways. On any given day, a whole host of other influences and creative heroes might come to mind.
During my time in Aberdeen, I regularly visited the art gallery, but it was Eardley’s work that truly captured my attention. Similarly, in London, my focus was drawn to Manet’s work at the Courtauld Institute (particularly Barmaid at The Folies Bergère) and Rembrandt’s Portrait at 64 at The National Gallery, which left a lasting impression on me. This habit of visiting galleries to focus on just one painting has continued with me to Copenhagen, where I now regularly visit The Carlsberg Glyptotek to stand in front of Manet’s Absinthe Drinker. That bottle is nothing short of sublime.
Creativity runs through my family. My late mother was an artist, and her tiger painting keeps a watchful eye on me from the hallway. My late father, a brilliant chef, nurtured my creativity in the kitchen, and this influence shows in the way I incorporate food, ingredients, and bottles into my work. As a child, my older sisters would draw for me, providing me with something to aim for as I developed my own artistic voice.