Dominique Cameron

“Leith Walks”

5 August to 3 September

Opening with refreshments on Friday 4 August 6-8pm

Following on from successful walks around Dundee and Montrose, Dominique

returns to Leith where she lived for a significant part of her life. Being a port,

Leith is a place where many journeys start and finish. For Dominique it was

where she lived when she started out as a student, where she got married and

where she had her children. Returning 20 years later, Dominique chronicles her

thoughts and observations of her “Leith Walks" through her uniquely lyrical

drawing, painting, writing and film.

Artist Statement

I am an artist that walks and draws. I draw lines on maps and walk those routes

observing, describing and fictionalising what I find. It’s an exploration of place.

Because of the fixed parameter of the line I must interpret only what’s on that

line, in turn trying to find the interest in whatever is there. That is part of the

challenge to look at forgotten, overlooked parts of the city. I chose the project in

Leith because I stayed here, off Ferry Road. It’s where I lived when I was at

college, where I got married, at the registry office round the corner from our flat

and where my two children were born. Leith is part of my history and I wanted

to retrace my steps, to see if Leith had changed in the years I had been away. I

found it changed, but then again, not. The people are as they were – generous,

chatty and funny, and the streets that took me past the flats where we lived are

the same. I wrote about my walks too, my encounters with Leithers and the

stories they told me. Some of these have been compiled in a book with the

drawings and paintings of Ferry Road, Great Junction street, The Fit o’ the walk,

Tolbooth Wynd, Constitution Street, Bernard Street and down at the docks that

mark the end point of the walk.

Here is one of my entries from a walk early on in the project

“Thick, smirry, wet rain. A man in mustard trousers and a trilby cycles past, a small

child in pink wellies whizzes on her scooter. I sit outside the library looking at the

enormous mural painted on the gable end wall of the tenement next door. It tells

the story of Leith, its industries, its activism, its story of welcoming new

communities. It has been here as long as I can remember. Boys with dogs, boys with

phones. A sofa put out for the rubbish. ‘Yes’ independence posters in flats opposite,

the blue fading but not the desire. Anoraks and parkas, pigeons and buses. My feet

are getting wet, daft to be wearing sandals on a day like today. The leaves are

already starting to fall. The end of summer.”

I wanted to tell my own story of Leith through these words and images. They will

come together as an exhibition with Fidra Fine Art from 4th August through to

3rd September. The gallery is open 12-5pm Saturdays and Sundays but drop-ins

and appointments are very welcome. There will be a Preview on Friday 4th

August from 6-8pm.

Notes to Editors:

Fidra Fine Art

Covering over 200 years of the best in Scottish fine art, watercolour and oil

paintings, drawings and prints, Fidra Fine Art is an art gallery based in North

Berwick, East Lothian and currently displays work from a range of leading

Traditional, Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary Scottish artists. Current

artists include Matthew Draper, Simon Laurie, Dominique Cameron, Davy Brown,

George Birrell, Neil Macdonald, Alice McMurrough, Lesley Banks, Jock MacInnes,

Angela Repping, Jayne Stokes and many more.

Dominique Cameron

I am an artist based in Fife having graduated from the MFA Art, Society and

Publics course at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. My practice is

based on research and material production around and through the themes of

exchange, conversation, observation and transience through the action of

walking. These areas of investigation are cornerstones to my practice in that they

offer frameworks in which we might view our narratives. Walking, for myself,

and the resultant observation and reflection act as a starting point to conjure

with ideas about where factual accounting and the fictional meet, where the

boundaries between these two states can blur and co-exist. How do we tell

stories about the landscape and its people?

As an artist I am currently walking three lines for exhibitions next year. I am

walking, drawing, and talking my way through Montrose for a second show with

Wall Projects, through Leith in Edinburgh for an exhibition with Fidra Fine Art

and through Pittenweem for next years Pittenweem Arts Festival.

For further information and invites to the Preview please contact:

Alan Rae

Fidra Fine Art

45 Dirleton Avenue

North Berwick

EH39 4BL

01620 895057 (m) 07981 982464

www.fidrafineart.co.uk

info@fidrafineart.co.uk

Alan Rae, 45 Dirleton Avenue, North Berwick, East Lothian EH39 4BL

01620 895057 – www.fidrafineart.co.uk - info@fidrafineart.co.uk

Grainstore, Leith Docks - Mixed Media on Paper - 118 x 59cm

Independence – Mixed Media on Paper – 55cm x 52cm