Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland, Caring for the Collection is a project that will focus on Art in Healthcare’s vast art collection, enabling us to undertake a programme of maintenance and conservation of artworks currently in our art store.
We are delighted to have the support to recruit two technical roles, who will be dedicated to working with collection artworks and improving how they are stored safely. In November, we appointed Giulia Gentili, our Technician, who brings several years of experience working with a wide range of artists and organisations as an art technician, fabricator and artist.
Followed by the recruitment of our Collection Technician Apprentice, Mina Brennan, who will work closely alongside Giulia. Together, they will review, maintain and restore artworks, with the aim of placing them in hospitals, care homes and community spaces across Scotland. In addition to gaining hands on experience working with the collection, Mina will gain a Museum and Galleries Technician Modern Apprenticeship [SCQF level 7] qualification.
As part of this project, and to celebrate Art in Healthcare’s 35th Anniversary, Mina has launched a blog exploring 35 works from the Art in Healthcare Collection and her findings from her apprenticeship.
Image: ‘Studio Table’ by Gordon Cameron
Welcome to the fourteenth blog post from the Collection Technicians!
Last week I was going through the collection doing more condition reporting. This painting visually struck me. The title is Studio Table by Gordon Cameron. This still life combines yellows, purples and reds to create an overall image of a sunny day at his worktable. There is a small yellow radio in the back and paper across the work surface.
Gordon Cameron was born in Aberdeen and studied at Grays School of Art, under lecturer Robert Sivell. In 1939 he assisted Robert Sivell on a large mural project for the Student Union alongside friend and fellow painter Alberto Morrocco.
The theme of the murals was in Sivells words, “an interpretation of the adventure of life and learning as presented to the imagination of the student entering on his career.” The Murals took 15 years and were completed in 1954, they were said to be one of the finest examples of a project like this in Scotland during the 2oth century.
The Hall was used as a Student Union until it became Sivells Bar and finally was shut and sold by the university in 2004. The building and the historical murals are not accessible to the public and the building and murals inside are now owned by The Bon Accord Shopping centre.
In 2007 conservators were allowed access to the Hall to apply paper coverings to the murals to help protect them. A group titled ‘Friends of the Sivells Murals Aberdeen’ is hoping to bring awareness to the existence of the murals and hopefully establish a way to make them open to the public again. Images of how the murals and the hall look now can be seen on their website and on the Robert Sivell Art Gallery website.
Camerons fellow student Alberto Morrocco who worked on the murals alongside him is also a renowned Scottish artist and part of the RSA. Alberto was also born in Aberdeen to Italian parents. Their name was originally Marrocco but when the sign for their ice-cream shop was repainted the signwriter misspelled their name to Morrocco, the misspelling stuck and so Alberto became Alberto Morrocco.
There is a lot of similarities between the two artists styles, they both put an emphasis on colour theory throughout their paintings, Morrocco’s palette is often a lot brighter and more vibrant than Camerons choice of subtle and muted tones. During WW2 Morrocco was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle as an ‘enemy alien’ before being released and allowed to serve as a conscientious objector. The two remained lifelong friends throughout their careers, Camerons RSA obituary was written by Alberto Morrocco, who wrote,
“Gordon Cameron was an artist of great talent and sensibility and perhaps his sensitivity to the complex subtleties and variations of physical phenomena which he observed and translated so beautifully was the finest part of it. His work covered themes of still life, landscape genre and of course portraiture, of which some of the most finest examples were of his wife, the painter Ellen Malcolm RSA, whom he married in 1962 and now survives him.”
Cameron met his wife fellow artist Ellen Cameron and winner of the RSA Guthrie award at Grays School of Art where she also studied under Robert Sivell, her paintings also depict her surroundings and everyday scenes, such as beautifully painted deck chairs and back gardens.
In 1952 Cameron left Aberdeen and relocated to Dundee where he became a full-time lecturer in painting at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art. He remained in Dundee until his passing at Ninewells Hospital in 1994. This painting ‘Studio Table’ was on display at Ninewells Hospital for several years.
Camerons style was inspired by artists such as Vuillard and the Les Nabis group in Paris. This painting peeks into an artist’s workspace. The use of soft colours and lighting creates a sense of calm aided by the flowers representing a domesticity not often associated with an artist’s lifestyle. The untidy piles of papers create an image to which most people can relate and provokes a sense of free-flowing thought and creativity.
Gordon Cameron was part of a vibrant point in Aberdeen’s artistic history, the Murals and the works from Cameron and the other artists during this time are a legacy of this. I hope one day we can all go and visit the murals again and appreciate the many years of work and creativity that went into them.
Caring for the Collection is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund Scotland.
Thanks to National Lottery players, we will be able to dedicate time to improve the condition of our artworks currently in our store, so that they will be able to be displayed in health and social care settings across Scotland.
Museum & Galleries Technician Modern Apprenticeship is supported by Museums Galleries Scotland provider of the apprenticeship, mentor and SCQF level 7
20 May 2026 by
Amy Miles