Intention

Art is meant to have an immediate effect - good or bad, but hopefully never indifferent. Either the work speaks to you, or it doesn't. Either the art chooses you, or it doesn't.

Some would suggest that through the work, there is also a relationship with the artist. This section of my site is intended to provide some insights into how and why a particular piece became what it is. Something from Nothing. What idea gestated in my mind's eye?

I have been asked many times if painting is relaxing for me. I really can't say it ever has been relaxing, rather - the act of painting is stimulating and energizing. To me each painting is a difficult birth, a translation of an idea or a visual reference, through feelings and attitudes, coloured by energy and brought to fruition -- when the painting is finished, I am usually exhausted, exhausted and peaceful.

Figure Blue
24 x 24" acrylic on canvas
2004 Nora Camps
The female figure is beautiful and rhythmic, even when distilled into a simple graphic form. Figure Blue is an original work - owned by Pam and Ron Lloyd, Toronto Canada


Texture 3
24 x 24" acrylic on canvas
2004, Nora Camps
All my paintings are windows or doors into or out of rooms. Texture 3 is both a window with a vista and the room itself. The hair from a banana tree has been incorporated to increase the texture and provide tension. Colour, tone and texture are often interpolated subliminally. In an abstract painting we are aware of all the components and we will them to act on us: to stir, stimulate and suggest meaning.
Texture 3 is an original work owned by Julie and Ken Otto, Toronto Canada

60,000 Unique Thoughts
36 x 48" acrylic on canvas
2004 Nora Camps
The average person has the propensity to have 60,000 individual thoughts each day. A very high percentage of people have exactly the same thoughts as the day before. We are, it seems, creatures of habit. Consciously change your routine, embrace new patterns and you will begin to unleash your unique thoughts. This painting represents unique thoughts taking flight. 60,000 Unique Thoughts is an original work - owned by Pam and Ron Lloyd, Toronto Canada

Stand of Trees
24 x 24" acrylic on canvas
2004 Nora Camps
Stand of Trees is an original work produced in acrylic on 24 x 24” stretched canvas - owned by Pam and Ron Lloyd, Toronto Canada

Through the Middle
36 x 36" acrylic on canvas
2003, Nora Camps
Through the middle is joyous celebration of "being" existing, traveling, experiencing. A series of pauses are represented against a backdrop of pure potentiality, made warm by the sun. Through the Middle is an original work owned by Anne and Pierre Neatby, Toronto Canda.

Conversations
30 x 30" acrylic on canvas
2003 Nora Camps
Conversations are words and ideas coloured by emotion. Conversations is an original work produced in acrylic on 30 x 30” stretched canvas - owned by Pam and Ron Lloyd, Toronto Canada

Eve
48 x 36" acrylic on canvas
2003, Nora Camps
Woman is characterized by Eve - also the day before, but never the day of. Woman has consistently cradled and cared in a way that is natural and nurturing. Hers is style interwoven in a tapestry of family, mate and work. I knew, inherently, how to represent Eve in my work. Eve had layer upon layer of vitality; yellow, orange, red...blended, over-painted, under-stated, overt with shadows and premonitions of otherworldliness. Red symbolized passion, effort, and it marked time - month by month, it represented pain and joy...There are strong geometric forms overlaid by continuous ovals...the ovals are the life force- birth, motherhood and all the possibilities.

Suspension
48” x 36” acrylic on canvas
2003, Nora Camps
We are suspended, traveling between two end points. On our way, always on our way from this destination, to the next. Pause, evaluate, change paths and move onward again. There are parallel lines, parallel choices actually. Conscious thought, connect the dots of opportunity and measure against our will, our vocation. We are suspended between two end points with the option of many different paths to take. How to get from here to there? Just think it, write it down, say it out loud, and leap to the next path. We are suspended between two end points with sheer potentiality above and below. We are suspended.

Energy paintings capture what I sense, what I feel, and what I see as you.
This is a type of portrait – not portraits in the sense of realistic likeness – they are abstract expressions of tension and attitude. An abstract expression of you. I suggest that the resulting painting be kept in personal space, not necessarily private – but personal. 36” x 48” painting is approximately $2,500. Timeframe 2 months (see Surfacing, in the Gallery, as an example)

Flowers in a Siena State of Mind
28” x 16” acrylic on wood
This painting is quite old world. I really enjoyed doing it. I built up the background with gesso over days. I don't want my paintings to be too realistic... I kind of like the label of expressionism (this one is verging on out of character for me) so I always try to include one edgy aspect...which in this case is the surreal background colour division. The orange is luminescent paint so that when natural or directed light hits it, it glows.

P H O T O G R A P H S

Three Cameras
11 x 14" black & white print (a series of 40 prints)
2003, Nora Camps
Photographed in the cool interior of the Pantheon in Rome, Italy, during a desperately hot summer. The Pantheon has a hemispherical dome with a skylight oculus at the apex. Through the oculus, direct sunlight is cast down and around the interior walls, which are otherwise unlit. The interior of the Pantheon is a perfect circle with diameter and height exactly the same at 43m. The wall is 6.05m thick and on the lower level are seven niches with pairs of Corinthian columns. Built between 118 - 35 A.D., the architect is unknown.

The source of this pure light is from the very apex of the dome. This photo is a celebration of architectural and engineering magnificence.