146 / 170
146
Conclusion
As early as 1944, John Hewitt referred to Campbell, Dillon and O’Neill for convenience as
a group, but he noted that despite their different personalities, they were strongly emotional
in their approach to their subject matter. They aimed at ‘and succeeded in responding to the
joy and pity of their days. More often to the pity’.
208
Over a decade later, critic Eric Newton
noted that Campbell’s pictures are, on the whole, ‘dark flashing lights, little climaxes that
emerge like fireworks in the night’, adding that ‘dark' is a word with all kinds of emotional
associations…Dark is a mood as well as a colour’.
209
Paintings are characteristically dark in
colour evoking melancholy and others depict drama and excitement. Campbell loved music,
Connemara, Donegal, Spain and people. His habit of making ‘doodles’ of his surroundings
resulted in a large volume of notes for studio work and he derived great pleasure from the
act of painting. Disciplined in his approach to his work, he developed a style of painting that
suited his personality and in his final phase of painting he mastered the medium. Following
his death, Arthur Armstrong remarked that his work was becoming ‘more and more abstract’
adding that he enjoyed breaking down his paintings into ‘little bits of pure magic.’
210
An extrovert, Campbell needed the stimulus of people around him and formed strong
friendships with those who understood him. He took his work seriously but with friends, he
enjoyed other interests and hobbies, remarking in an interview, ‘If I painted all day I’d just go
screaming mad.’
211
His restlessness led him to experiment with all mediums
212
and his early
experience working at the
Belfast Telegraph
taught him about printing and layout, which
helped him to later design his own catalogues. Exhibition catalogues in Ireland and Spain
from the mid-1970s –‘Friends and Acquaintances’, ‘Mostly Connemara’and ‘Irish Artists in
Spain’ – reveal another dimension to Campbell. Tom Kenny remarked recently ‘We just hung
George’s pictures, he did all the groundwork himself.’
213
By the late 1950s, his travels to Spain had become routine, yet he seemed unaware how
Spain had affected him. In interviews, he uttered surprise if a journalist remarked that he
didn’t look like a painter. On his annual return trips to Ireland, his dark skin, attire and
aroma of Gauloises cigarettes peaked people’s interest. Described as a night owl, friends recall
Campbell’s tapas dishes and music sessions at Florence Terrace after the pubs closed.
208
John Hewitt, ‘Under Forty Some Ulster Artists’,
Now In Ulster,
W & G Baird, LTD Belfast, 1944, p. 33.
209
Eric Newton, ‘George Campbell’, ‘Paintings 1953–1957, George Campbell’, the Richie Hendriks Gallery.
210
George Campbell RHA,
A Tribute
, RTE, 1979
211
‘Talking to George Campbell’,
The Irish Times,
30 June 1962, p. 10.
212
Campbell designed a 9ftx2ft abstract glass relief work for the bar at the Park Hotel, Virginia, 1973, designed
a large abstract wall-hanging (untraced) and a series of tables designs of Roundstone Harbour(never
completed)
213
Conversation with Tom Kenny, 9 December 2014.