Cameron Ross Kemarre

Cameron was born in Alice Springs in 1966 to his Aboriginal mother & father. He has lived in many parts of Australia including Alice Springs, Darwin, Tiwi Islands and Port Augusta. He started painting in 2004 in Alice Springs when his partner Marilyn Davies would paint with the old ladies. Marilyn encouraged Cameron to help her with a few works and later urged him to start his own canvases. Marilyn paints perfect round dots with the larger end of a wooden skewer. Cameron tried and couldn’t get his dots precise enough and being a perfectionist he had to think of an alternative. He experimented with the pointed end of the skewer and the patterns and detail he achieved was a unique style. Cameron starts his paintings by dotting and outlining the main figures he wants to showcase and then fills in the backgrounds. He sometimes, without planning will find figures, shapes and forms within the backgrounds. These aren’t intentional, but, he explains it might be the spiritual being that has been guiding him. The being is sometimes a boy and sometimes a girl, they have protected him for as long as he can remember. Cameron not only paints in detail, but, the stories he shares are quite comprehensive. If you look at the back of his canvas you will find a long story written on the back. He wants to share his stories and experiences with his audience and the thought that goes into these are vast. To date, Cameron has painted 30 paintings and you can find his pieces in many private collections in many parts of the world. He hasn’t had a solo exhibition as it would take too many years to accumulate a collection of paintings. Each piece generally takes more than 6 months to paint. His amazingly fine pointillist approach creates paintings within paintings. His subject matter is far from the traditional dreaming’s of earlier generations. Seven of his works feature in the 25 year anniversary issue of the Indigenous Law Bulletin, published by the Indigenous Law Centre, University of NSW. His country is being handed back to his family and he will return to his grandmother’s country south of Alice Springs this year to join his family to build and live on his land. He is represented by Art Mob, Hobart.