Camille has been drawing for as long as she can remember. After having a professional career as a graphic designer for over a decade, Camille jumped at the opportunity to take part in the SCHF Art Program to combine her two passions of art and kids' health.

How did you become an artist?

As long as I can remember, I have been drawing and really drawn to creating as a kid. It was something pretty natural and part of everyday life and out of that kind of evolved a passion for art and design and I was able to have a professional career as a graphic designer for about 10 years and then more recently in the last six years, I've gone back to my roots and I've been able to focus on Fine Arts and also studying alongside it.

What inspired you to create art?

I guess for me personally, I've always used art as a way to decompress and it's something that I found connects me with people easily. I use it with my kids or when they're bored it's something that has kind of carried through to everyday life. Creating to me is very much about having a project from start to finish. I like the idea of being able to record something and then for it to be shared with other people and maybe used to connect as well with other people.

What is your favourite medium within art?

Painting is something that I've probably done more recently, originally because I was quite strapped for time with little kids. I went back to more pencil and ink drawings and out of that stemmed portraits. When I was living overseas, I was actually living in New York for a while. I always had an ink pen in my bag to be able transport it around and do little bits and pieces of art anytime I felt inspired. But now as I've got more time that I can devote towards my practice, painting and even larger scale paintings have been a luxury that I've been able to focus on. I use it to explore different themes which seem to be emerging, but ultimately I wanted to use painting as a primary medium cause it was reflective of that need for soothing brushstrokes and soft colour palettes.

Do you have a personal connection to SCHF?

My connection is probably like most Sydney parents with having short stays or being able to experience the care of Sydney Children's Hospital for my own kids. But even way back, I've always had a passion to help people and wanted to be involved with Sydney Children's Hospital in some way. I took the art route rather than the health route. When the SCHF Art Program opportunity came up, it was the best of both worlds and a bit of a pinch me moment to have these two passions collide in a really meaningful way.

What do you hope people within the hospital will feel or think when they see your paintings on the walls?

These pieces were brought out of my own response during COVID where I just needed that fresh air or to get away and needed a window to the outside world. So a lot of that has been translated through the landscapes in a more whimsical type of abstract that I’m hoping might translate to people as they walk through the corridors and are able get a little bit of relief when they have a look at the artworks there. I think when people look at them it can hopefully help people that are in challenging situations become calmer or slow down their breathing just for a moment. It's connecting and bringing people back to those activities that they do outside of the hospitals. So important cause it's part of life, but it's not their whole life. And then when you've got kids and their siblings and their parents who are coming along for this ride, it's nice for them to be able to have some kind of release and or even something that might connect them again in a way. And connect with maybe an imaginative world as such. Maybe thoughts of their own home, which might be in regional NSW or somewhere else outside of Sydney.

What does it mean to you to have your art at the hospital?

Probably going back to that idea of having these two worlds collide of care and art and bringing it all together. It’s something that means a lot to me because it's a cause that's bigger than my art and bigger than myself.

Do you have any other messages or anything else that you'd like to be included?

I'm just grateful to be included in this art program and hopefully there'll be some money raised as well, for the Sydney Children's Hospitals Foundation, which is a really amazing and valuable cause.