Hugh Campbell

Painter, Philosopher, Author

A special exhibition of a selection of paintings from Burlington County's Permanent Collection and paintings on loan from the community.

November 22 - January 31

Smithville Annex Art Gallery, Meade Lane & Smithville Road, Eastampton, NJ(click for directions)

Mount Holly Library & Lyceum, 307 High Street, Mount Holly, NJ (click for directions)

Live Music, Refreshments

Click below to download maps (PDF):

Annex Gallery to Library

Library to Annex Gallery

Hugh Campbell left a nine-to-five job in 1930's to pursue an artist's life. He jumped into his new life with nothing but determination and a “feeling” that he could paint. Training himself was his first priority, which he did by drawing over 1,000,000 free-hand circles and then over 130,000 action sketches of people on the streets. But it was the fields around his boyhood fishing spots in Mount Holly where he felt the most at home. He commuted from Camden to Mount Holly regularly as he discovered that those fields and streets were the subject matter that he wanted to paint. He had no money and no place to stay so he would pitch a tent in a field and stay overnight. At one point the owner of Hack's Canoe Retreat told him that he didn't have to pitch a tent, he could come as often as he liked and stay as long as he liked in an unheated canoe barn at no charge. He thought Hugh was going to stay a week or two, but he ended up staying seven years.

Each night, winter and summer, he would go to Milldam Park and meditate. Each day, carrying his heavy painting gear, he would look for inspiration in and around the town. Then, after painting, he would record in his voluminous diaries the goings-on all around him. Every Sunday he would display his paintings along the concrete wall on High Street for even then unheard of prices of 20 or 30 dollars. He earned, on average, an income of about $3.50 to $5.00 a week from the sale of his paintings. As he refined his technique he became a regular at the Rittenhouse Square Annual Clothesline Exhibit in Philadelphia .

In the 1940s Hugh Campbell bought an old bicycle repair shop building for $150 and moved in onto Kates Tract the woods on the banks of the Rancocas.

In 1962 he published a book called “Knock Vigorously to Be Heard”. The title was taken from the notice on his cabin door. It is filled with hometown humor, depression memories and spiritual observations, giving us revealing glimpses of an unusual man living in a small country town. His paintings and writings are a moving history of Mount Holly at mid century.

Campbell stayed in the shack on Kates Tract until the mid-1980s when he was overcome by fumes from a faulty kerosene heater. After a stay in the hospital, he became a ward of the state and spent his last years in a nursing home. At that time he entrusted his remaining paintings to his good friend Malcolm Wells to take care of. After Hugh Campbell's death, Malcolm Wells donated the entire collection to Burlington County .

Thirty-one paintings in Burlington County 's extensive collection are being professionally conserved in preparation for an exciting exhibition of his work in November of 2008. Part of that exhibition will be held in the Mount Holly Library and Lyceum on High Street in the town that he loved so much.

On Saturday, June 21, the Burlington County community had the opportunity to participate in the conservation of an additional 15 paintings by this extraordinary artist when the Burlington County Freeholders and Mill Race Village Arts & Preservation, Inc. host “Adopt a Campbell” at the Mount Holly Library. At the special event, attendees got a sneak preview of several of the conserved paintings, as well as paintings still in need of attention. Individuals and organizations still have an opportunity to “adopt” one of the paintings by paying for its conservation treatment. In return, they will be acknowledged in the exhibition catalog and on cards displayed alongside the paintings during the exhibit. They will also receive framed reproductions of the Campbell art work they “adopted.”

If you have any information about Hugh Campbell's artwork or his life, please contact Lynn Lemyre at (609) 265-5068 or email llemyre@co.burlington.nj.us