Camilla West

THE POWER OF COLOUR
In Camilla West’s Universe, it’s all about the GRAND, but using only minimal techniques.
The few, but powerful strokes of paint are almost provoking in their simple expression, but they make a strong impact. They contain a force of colour, which makes one see and feel.
It is abstract and yet recognizable. One line and there is a horizon. One dot and the stars light up, so that the otherwise dark landscape can just about be recognized. It is the GRAND-the beautiful and disturbing- shown in its simplicity.
Camilla West’s paintings looks as if they have been made in one movement. Quickly. And incredibly confident. However, many hours lie behind each canvas, although the actual line shown has been made in a short moment.
The colours are shown in hard contrast. The effect works well without it seeming pretentious. The thick layer of paint is sometimes protruding from the canvas as a 3D model.
She has often been compared to the Danish painter Edward Weie(1879-1943) who was preoccupied with the impact of colour and the understanding of possibilities of colour interaction. This comparison is therefore no wonder, as Camilla uses the power of colours too. One could also compare her work with that of the SKAGEN PAINTERS, especially P.S. Krøyer and his use of light, which Camilla also handles so well. And light in a painting was exactly what Emile Zola (Naturism theorist and who inspired Krøyer) was concerned with in her interpretation carried out in a modern technique. The light in Camilla and Krøyer’s paintings is often just a suggestion, which stands flickering and quiet at the same time.
Camilla West is both classic and contemporary at the same time; especially the landscape paintings, which are caught in a split second. And we learn to see what she has seen. One might dare to call it ‘ Modern Expressionistic Impressionism’.
The places, which Camilla is portraying, are actually on FYN, and even so one might never have been there, it is easy to recognize them and one gets to greet a new one, as one would an old friend. One feels at home in her paintings.
Camilla West’ landscapes are always more than a specific place. They also exist as landscapes within the mind. They are like landscape paintings of the human mind. Like a map of the mind and its movements. And quite often it is the melancholic mind, with the deep and clear colours, she portrays. The melancholy of the North, whilst watching dusk appear. Her works are Mind Pictures or Mood Pictures, which using the power of colour, show us an idyllic and peaceful landscape, which at the same time also shows us a powerful nature, which is underlying everything.
Troels Laursen.