George Campbell RHA (1917-1979) The Harbour, Kilkeel Oil on board, 38 x 49cm (26 x 19¼'') Signed Probably painted in the second part of the 1940s, 'Kilkeel' is a dynamic painting that...

George Campbell RHA (1917-1979) The Harbour, Kilkeel Oil on board, 38 x 49cm (26 x 19¼'') Signed Probably painted in the second part of the 1940s, 'Kilkeel' is a dynamic painting that demonstrates a clear change of mood from Campbell's haunting images of Belfast after the blitz. The fluid manner of working demonstrates a more traditional approach to the landscape before cubism became a dominant influence of Campbell's work in the early 1950s after he became absorbed in Spanish life and culture. Rather than the flattened and more formally organised treatment of the landscape in the later paintings, there is a single linear perspective used here and a clearer sense of space, although much of the painting's effect is created by certain manipulations such as the exaggerated drive of the harbour wall out in to the sea and the steep falling away of the road that pulls the eye abruptly into the middle distance, towards the boats and houses. Campbell also creates a subtle secondary rhythm through the painting through the figures who are strolling, sitting or working around the beach and the harbour. The hills and sky and the very end of the beach are organised by a strongly cursive black line that creates a strongly connected unit that contrasts with the broad, mostly vertical, broken strokes that lead the viewer through the foreground. Campbell exhibited a number of paintings of Kilkeel in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Although it was not known for its connections with artists, Campbell and Arthur Armstrong appear to have spent some time there around the late 1940s and Nevill Johnson also painted there. Its picturesque setting by the sea and overlooked by the Mournes was interpreted in very different ways by these artists. Dickon Hall, 2012

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