It isn't surprising that Ross Cameron has been sculpting all his life. It is in his DNA.
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With his mother Phyllida Cameron being a sculptor and artist, he has been "mucking around with plasticine" for as long as he can remember.
Mr Cameron has lived in the Bega Valley for around 28 years and his parents have had a holiday home in Barragga Bay since the 1970s where his father now lives, however he grew up in Canberra.
He studied sculpture under Ron Robertson-Swann and Ante Dabro at Canberra School of Arts.
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While he was there he co-founded an experimental theatre group called Splinters that ran in Canberra from 1984 to 1994.
"That was lots of fun, travelling around putting on shows," he said.
Mr Cameron moved to the shire in 1995 to take up a position at the Regional Gallery where he worked for 13 years.
"Even then I was doing my sculpture stuff on the side," he said.
Fun but risky
Mr Cameron still works with plasticine, along with clay, to make small models prior to creating larger versions with materials like stone, steel and polymer cement.
He also does his own bronze casting.
He shies away from art galleries so the only way to see Mr Cameron's sculptures is exhibitions like Sculpture Bermagui where he has been exhibiting since it began in 2007.
Mr Cameron's work Tidal Spiral won the major prize in 2015 and stands at Short Point in Merimbula.
He also opens his studio to the public at Easter and other times of the year and sometimes runs workshops on silicon rubber moulding and cuttlefish casting.
He said large pieces are fun to work on but are always a bit of a risk.
"They are expensive to make, hugely time-consuming and you may not sell them," Mr Cameron said.
"I really enjoy doing it but you can't do too many because you have to move them and store them somewhere.
"Ideally you would do them on commission."
Affects people
One piece that led him to do similar works was a granite figure in a seated foetal position that he made while going through a difficult period in his life.
"It really resonated with people.
"One woman wanted to buy it but it had already sold so she commissioned me to do one for her.
"She had recently lost her husband and she could describe the work exactly the way I felt about it," Mr Cameron said.
Sculpture Bermagui runs from March 11 to 19.
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