Craigievar 1908

David Young Cameron created this etching, probably sometime in the early twentieth century. The sepia landscape is so evocative. I can imagine Cameron, lugging his metal plate and tools out into the Scottish countryside. What was he thinking when he made this? I bet he was shivering! Look at the tonal gradations, the way he's captured the light filtering through the clouds. And the castle there, nestled amongst the trees, a kind of gothic fairytale vision. You know, etching is such a physical medium, the way the artist scratches into the metal, building up the image line by line. It’s almost like a conversation he’s having, a conversation about the sublime, about the romance of the Scottish landscape. Cameron's work reminds me of Whistler and the old masters of printmaking. It's all one big conversation really, artists responding to what came before, finding their own voice in the mix.