Roberta Cameron Smith
1922 - 2015
Roberta Una Vilaincour, née Cameron Smith, was the youngest of three sisters, born in New Zealand to parents of Welsh and Scots origin. Growing up, she travelled regularly between New Zealand and the UK by ship.
She started painting in New Zealand, but was always intensely drawn to her European roots. She was determined to live and work in Britain, and to travel as widely as possible in Europe, to explore the cultural heritage of painting, literature, music and theatre.
The Second World War inevitably brought major disruption to her life. She left the UK on 8th July 1939 with her elder sister Patricia, by Cunard liner to New York, and travelled onwards to Christchurch, New Zealand, where she spent the WWII years training as a wood carver.
As soon as the war was over, she returned to London and took up employment with a wood working and carpentry firm in the City of London, where she was employed in helping to restore the pews of St Paul's Cathedral. Her income financed further studies in painting, at the Central School of Art and Crafts, London. It was here that she met her husband, Leon Vilaincour, whom she married in 1948.
Like her husband, she continued to draw and paint throughout her life. She also taught drawing for many years for the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).
Cameron Smith's painting reflected her cultural heritage and her particular love of the Mediterranean and classical world of Greece and Rome, as well as her affinity with gardens and the natural world.
Roberta Cameron Smith
1922 - 2015
Roberta Una Vilaincour, née Cameron Smith, was the youngest of three sisters, born in New Zealand to parents of Welsh and Scots origin. Growing up, she travelled regularly between New Zealand and the UK by ship.
She started painting in New Zealand, but was always intensely drawn to her European roots. She was determined to live and work in Britain, and to travel as widely as possible in Europe, to explore the cultural heritage of painting, literature, music and theatre.
The Second World War inevitably brought major disruption to her life. She left the UK on 8th July 1939 with her elder sister Patricia, by Cunard liner to New York, and travelled onwards to Christchurch, New Zealand, where she spent the WWII years training as a wood carver.
As soon as the war was over, she returned to London and took up employment with a wood working and carpentry firm in the City of London, where she was employed in helping to restore the pews of St Paul's Cathedral. Her income financed further studies in painting, at the Central School of Art and Crafts, London. It was here that she met her husband, Leon Vilaincour, whom she married in 1948.
Like her husband, she continued to draw and paint throughout her life. She also taught drawing for many years for the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).
Cameron Smith's painting reflected her cultural heritage and her particular love of the Mediterranean and classical world of Greece and Rome, as well as her affinity with gardens and the natural world.
She started painting in New Zealand, but was always intensely drawn to her European roots. She was determined to live and work in Britain, and to travel as widely as possible in Europe, to explore the cultural heritage of painting, literature, music and theatre.
The Second World War inevitably brought major disruption to her life. She left the UK on 8th July 1939 with her elder sister Patricia, by Cunard liner to New York, and travelled onwards to Christchurch, New Zealand, where she spent the WWII years training as a wood carver.
As soon as the war was over, she returned to London and took up employment with a wood working and carpentry firm in the City of London, where she was employed in helping to restore the pews of St Paul's Cathedral. Her income financed further studies in painting, at the Central School of Art and Crafts, London. It was here that she met her husband, Leon Vilaincour, whom she married in 1948.
Like her husband, she continued to draw and paint throughout her life. She also taught drawing for many years for the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA).
Cameron Smith's painting reflected her cultural heritage and her particular love of the Mediterranean and classical world of Greece and Rome, as well as her affinity with gardens and the natural world.
