Cressida Campbell facts for kids

Cressida Campbell is a famous Australian artist. She was born on July 8, 1960. She is known for her unique way of making art using woodblocks.

Early Life and Art School

Cressida Rosemary Campbell was born in Sydney, Australia. Her parents were Ruth and Ross Campbell. She has an older sister, Nell Campbell, who is an actress.

Cressida studied art at East Sydney Technical College. She attended from 1978 to 1979.

Cressida Campbell's Art Career

Cressida Campbell had her very first art show in Sydney in 1979. In 1985, she traveled to Tokyo, Japan. There, she spent several weeks at the Yoshida Hanga Academy. She learned how to guide the viewer's eye around a picture using clever arrangements.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, her art was shown in galleries. She worked with Rex Irwin Art Dealer. Since 1994, Phillip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane has been her main art dealer. She also showed her work at the Sophie Gannon gallery in Melbourne. Cressida even had exhibitions in London in 2001 and 2003.

Major Art Exhibitions

A very important exhibition of her work took place at the National Gallery of Australia. It was in Canberra from September 2022 to February 2023. This show was a huge success. It had the most visitors for any living artist's exhibition in Australian history.

How Cressida Campbell Creates Art

Cressida Campbell uses a special technique to make her art. She carves designs into woodblocks. Then, she paints these carved woodblocks with up to three layers of paint.

After painting, she wets the woodblock. She then makes a single print from it onto paper. The woodblock is repainted a little to fix any lost details. The print on paper is then hand-painted for many months. This process creates a finished artwork. So, two artworks are made: one on paper and one on wood.

Her art focuses on bright colors and interesting designs. It looks a bit like old Japanese ukiyo-e prints. These prints have a flat look, but Cressida's art shows modern Australia. The Japanese artist Kitagawa Utamaro is one of the artists who inspired her. Cressida shows both her prints and her hand-painted woodblocks as finished artworks.

In 2022, one of her woodblocks sold for a very high price. It was the highest price paid for a work by a living Australian woman artist.

Influences on Her Technique

Cressida Campbell's art technique is based on "white line" printmaking. This method was first used by the Provincetown Printers in Massachusetts in 1913. People say she follows in the footsteps of famous Australian artists like Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor. She also created a series of painted woodblocks to celebrate her friend, artist Margaret Olley.

Awards and Recognition

Cressida Campbell was honored in the 2024 Australia Day Honours. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia. This award was given for her "significant service to the visual arts."

Two photographs of Cressida Campbell are displayed at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.

Cressida Campbell's Personal Life

In 1991, Cressida married Peter Crayford. They decided not to have children due to health reasons. Since 2001, she has lived in the Sydney suburb of Bronte. Her home is also where her art studio is located. In April 2022, she married Warren Macris, who is a fine art printer and photographer.

Selected Art Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

• Cressida Campbell, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (September 24, 2022 – February 19, 2023)
• Timeless: The art of Cressida Campbell, National Trust S H Ervin Gallery, Sydney (January 10 – February 22, 2009)
• Cressida Campbell, Nevill Keating Pictures, London (July 7–22, 2005)
• Cressida Campbell (Masks, Paintings and Things), Hogarth Galleries, Paddington, NSW (September 29 – October 14, 1979)

Group Exhibitions

• Cutting Through Time—Cressida Campbell, Margaret Preston, and the Japanese Print, Geelong Gallery, Geelong, Victoria (May 18 - July 28, 2024)
• Speaking of Women, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (March 8 – June 8, 1995)
• Sydney prints: 45 years of the Sydney Printmakers, S.H. Ervin Gallery (August 19 – September 24, 2006), Hawkesbury Regional Gallery (February 9 – March 11, 2007), and Tamworth Regional Gallery (March 24 – April 29, 2007)

Art Collections

Cressida Campbell's artwork is kept in several important art collections. These include:

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• National Gallery of Australia (NGA)

The director of the NGA, Nick Mitzevich, said in 2022 that Cressida Campbell is one of the most collected artists in Australia by private collectors.

See Also

• Provincetown printmaking (also known as White Line printmaking)