On Thursday 13th November at 7:30pm, we welcome Sydenham based art historian David Wootton to Kirkdale Bookshop with his book: Peter Cameron: Artistic Convictions
Tracing the career of the Liverpool-based figurative artist, Peter Cameron, from teaching himself to draw and paint while serving a prison sentence, through gaining the prizes, solo shows and commissions that marked his national success, to evolving a practice in response to Parkinson’s. Wooton considers this career in the light of an unusual and interesting life, and the environments within which it has been achieved.
This is a fascinating book - a rare study of an artist who, while establishing himself as an artist in prison, confronted his circumstances through his art; and then, following his release, developed stylistically, technically and in content to create a substantial and popular body of work.
With attention paid to the role of art in rehabilitation and in the face of chronic illness, David will talk us through Peter's life and how he came to make and research the book, addressing in particular the challenges it can bring.
Tickets are £5 (+ a small booking fee)
Peter Cameron(b.1947) took up art while serving a prison sentence, and later described his incarceration as a career move.
On his release in 1992, he received the support of the Koestler Trust and was able to evolve from post-prison survivor to celebrated artist with a substantial body of work.
In 2003, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, which took his art in a new direction, emphasising the movement that increasingly eluded him. Peter’s is an inspiring story of survival and real-life grit,richly illustrated and narrated, and embellished with Peter’s own lively anecdotes.
His early work provides an almost unique artistic record of life in a British prison from the perspective of an inmate. In charting Peter’s career, the book also shows an artist responding to a diagnosis of Parkinson’s, and sustaining and adapting his creative work as the symptoms of his degenerative condition have taken hold. In addition, the book provides insights into the vital art scene of Liverpool, Peter’s adoptive city.