The paintings in this exhibition continue with the artist’s trademark edgy Victorian imagery. They show naïve-styled attention to detail and fastidious patterning. The rich caramel browns and the lacy stencil effects contribute to the colonial template that is overlayed differently in each painting, where delicate interior/exterior emblems speak of both drudgery and of dreams.

Campbell’s paintings are earthy and ethereal. They are painted with affection for the subject matter and have a fine sense of balance.

The dream aspect, revealed in the surrealised forms and the impossible perspective, shows the (subtle) dark side of an era known for a preoccupation with collecting and sentimentalia. People are frail and pasty, encased in backgrounds where massive flowers loom over them and lacy doilies seem like cages.

Campbell’s paintings are highly appealing and have a lusciousness of colour, tone, texture and theme, and these things in combination make them very desirable.