CBC Artspots : Eric Cameron

CBC Artspots
March 15, 2019

From the archives: A rose is a rose, but not when it’s covered in 10,000 layers of paint

Name: Eric Cameron

Homebase: Calgary

Artspots appearance: 2005

13 years ago…

A newly minted Governor General’s Award winner when this episode aired, Eric Cameron is probably best known for his Thick Paintings.

“I paint objects which turn into sculptures,” he tells Artspots — about as tidy a definition for the project as they come. 

Every Thick Painting starts as an everyday object — a beer bottle maybe, or a sugar packet — which the artist then coats with gesso, a thin white paint that’s typically used as a primer. 

After that, he paints it again and again and again — adding more than 10,000 layers in some cases — to produce a stark white irregular form with a mysterious and inedible Tootsie Roll centre. 

To read the entire article and see the interview with Eric Cameron, please click here.

Image Credit:
Love Sonnets from Shakespeare for Margaret (1032), begun 2002
Acrylic and acrylic gesso on small book  
6” x 12” x12”