Dragonfly
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Dragonfly

Cameron Douglas

Dragonfly

2007

About the Artist

Cameron Douglas was born in Perth, Scotland in 1957 and came to Canada with his family at the age of three. The family settled in Nelson, B.C., where his father painted and taught art. Cameron's interest in art took him to Red Deer College, Alberta to work on his Fine Arts degree followed with studies in sculpture at the David Thompson University Centre, Nelson, B.C. As Cameron's interest in sculpture grew he took up firsthand experiences at foundries in Calgary and in Kelowna. This provided him with the skills of bronze casting utilizing the lost wax process. A trip to Europe in the fall 1988 gave Cameron the opportunity to see the works of European sculpture masters and especially the Cubist artists for which he found an affinity. Upon returning to Canada he set up his studio in Canmore, Alberta and was soon developing a following through Masters Gallery, Calgary. A commission in 2014 by the national law firm Bennett Jones saw Cameron complete a larger than life bust of the former Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, which was unveiled in Heritage Park, Calgary. Cameron continues to live and work in Nelson, B.C.

Comments on the Work

The only bronze sculpture in the collection is entitled "Dragonfly, 2007." Cameron has always been an "outdoorsy" fellow and his first canoe was named "Dragonfly." He has stated "that to be a true canoe enthusiast and a Canadian, one has to have had an intimate relationship in a canoe." Hence the idea of a bronze illustrating a couple in the intimate act was undertaken. He has taken liberties with the scale of the canoe in that it is very short, has a wide gunwale and unlike modern recreational canoes there are no seats. The only witness to the event is a seagull or duck that seems to be curious to events onboard the vessel. Cameron's works has captured the attention of art lovers via his uncanny ability to capture the poetics of the human figure in such compelling terms. His understanding of the classical proportions of the body blended with a modernist ambition of expressive manipulation of the form and subject result in a vision of harmony, grace and playfulness of the human form.

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