Raymond Campbell: This 55-year-old Englishman, a native of Surrey, England was convinced as a schoolboy that he could make a living as an artist. But before he would become the United Kingdom’s pre-eminent still life artist, he would dig graves and live the life of a fishmonger while pursuing his dreams.

He experimented with various media – pottery, pen and ink, acrylics – before finally choosing oils.

Campbell studied the 19th century masters intensively, while traveling throughout the UK and Europe in the late 1970s, and he was greatly influenced by the Dutch who inspired him to paint his still life in the Flemish tradition.

He eventually developed an individual style that is widely recognized and greatly admired by c...