Cressida Campbell: Art of still-life despite adversity

Cressida Campbell says she is embarrassed by praise, but she is gratified that so many people enjoyed her exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

Artist Cressida Campbell has been recognised in the Australia Day honours. Picture: Nikki Short

Sydney artist Cressida Campbell is sometimes embarrassed at the praise she receives for her woodblock prints – including a letter advising she would be the recipient of an Australia Day honour.

“When I get something that is so incredibly flattering like that, I just put it immediately in a drawer,” she said.

Campbell’s painstaking technique involves hundreds of hours of work as she produces a single incised woodblock and a single-edition print made from it.

Her work is highly prized by collectors and in 2022 she was the subject of a major survey show at the National Gallery of Australia seen by more than 87,000 people.

Campbell, 63, has been awarded the AM for her service to the visual arts. Other arts figures recognised this Australia Day include film producer Margaret Fink, photographer Bill Henson, artist Lindy Lee and composer Richard Mills.

Campbell said she was gratified by people’s response to her woodcuts, which often are of interiors of her Sydney home, flowers and still-life subjects.

“When I had the show in Canberra, I did get a lot of feedback from people saying how much they loved the work,” she said. “Some people said they were crying. It moved a lot of people.”

In 2020, Campbell was diagnosed with an abscess on the brain that had paralysed the right side of her body and made it impossible for her to hold a pen or to draw. When removed, the abscess was the size of a lemon.

She made a very good recovery, she said, but the experience had brought a sense of urgency to her art practice. She was preparing for an exhibition likely to be in Sydney next year.

“It makes you realise when you go through a situation like this that time is of the essence,” she said.

“You want to get more done.”

Campbell said while making her woodblocks was laborious and difficult, she thought awards such as Australia Day honours should really be for people who do selfless or unpleasant work.

“I feel like I have been blessed with the need to do something which is always inspiring me,” she said.

“And it seems to give some people quite a lot of pleasure or interest.”