Trevor Newton
NEW PAINTINGS: FROM WESTMORLAND TO THE AUSTRALIAN RAIN FOREST BY WAY OF HORSE GUARDS PARADE AND VENICE.
Front Cover: Early Morning Woodland. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK. 40 x 53 CM 2
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LAKE LAND (Pages 6 –11)
The title of this group of around twenty large watercolour sketches is ‘Lake Land’ rather than ‘Lakeland’. The reason is as follows. I have recently completed an extensive ‘family tree’, tracing my father’s Westmorland ancestors back across the centuries. The Newtons were yeoman farmers in and around Ambleside and Patterdale, intermarrying with a small number of other yeoman families and forming a vast web of kinship which can be traced.back to the late 13th century. Owing to various happy circumstances and survivals, I struck genealogical gold at virtually every turn. Large numbers of parish records, Tudor, Stuart and Georgian family wills and early farm and domestic inventories have survived. The Newtons were men and women of the Fells rather than the Lakes and I became fascinated by the idea of their having ‘owned’ and ‘passed down’ sections of that wild and rugged landscape. There is a strange poignancy to all those meticulous old family wills: fields, enclosures, copses, peat bogs, quarries, fells - as well as higher and more desolate reaches of peak and crag - are named, measured, divided and disposed of with great precision among sons and grandsons. Now, however, all that remains of those hundreds of forbears - the will-makers and the inheritors - are a few fragile seals and faded signatures on a few dozen brittle pieces of paper. Their ownership or stewardship; their hard, busy lives; their whole tightly knit but widely spread network of family and kin which ranged across that landscape for the best part of six hundred years—all these have passed away leaving only the land; the land which was there before they came and which will be there after we have gone. These drawings – all very spontaneously and freely done - are an attempt to show my feelings about that aspect of the Land of the Lakes which defies ownership. In them, I have tried to convey what is most basic, essential and permanent; rock, soil, snow, air, distance. The quotation from Dorothy Wordsworth with which I have prefaced this short series beautifully expresses in words what I have tried to express in my drawings. ©Trevor Newton
VENICE and CEREMONIAL (Pages 12 –17) Virginia Woolf's father was once asked whether he smoked cigars. He replied that he had had a single cigar as a young man and had found it such a delightful, satisfying and enjoyable experience that he had never been tempted to repeat it. That is my experience of Venice; I went there in my early twenties, had a perfectly enjoyable and rewarding time, but have never particularly wanted to return. So why Venetian pictures, apart from the fact that Venice is a popular and accessible subject? What appeals to me is not so much the Venetian 'scene' and atmosphere in general, but the particular shapes, textures and lines which the architecture of Venice comprehends. Ogee arches, quatrefoil windows, vertical but lop-sided facades rising out of the water among forests of upright or slightly leaning mooring posts; it's all quite fun to draw and paint. The same goes for my 'Ceremonial' paintings. I am not particularly Royalist or traditionalist but I do enjoy the purely sensual, visual flash and colour of flags, gilt trappings and of the absurdly complicated and costly unforms and robes which go to make up that most touristically profitable phenomenon, British Pageantry. The little set of paintings in this exhibition is my attempt to capture the fleeting glints and tones of the passing parade. ©Trevor Newton 4
REEF AND RAINFOREST (Pages 18 –25) For three months of every year I hide myself away in a shack-cum-studio (oil-lamp-lit and built entirely with my own hands) on an Australian Bush hillside near the Capricorn Coast of Queensland (I am one of those people who like their own company). There I draw and paint most of the pictures which go to make up my exhibitions (and my living!) during the rest of the year. Although I may be in Australia, I usually create English scenes mostly from memory - featuring the architecture and topography of my native land. This year, however, I decided to try to convey something of the atmosphere of the particular corner of Australia of which I have become so fond and which is more than a second home to me. As my shack is on a densely wooded hillside five miles from the Pacific Ocean and a similar distance from the edge of the Great Dividing Range, I decided on a mixture of Reef and Rainforest subjects. The former - evocations of the underwater colours and textures of the Great Barrier Reef - were done from a blend of memory and imagination. The series of Rainforest pictures, however, was made (very rarely for me, as my techniques really need a studio environment) 'en plein air', sitting or standing among the steaming trees themselves. This was not easy. In my part of Australia, which is subtropical, the rainforest comes in pockets, rather than being the predominant form of vegetation as it is further north. So, armed with a flat wooden board (I don't use an easel), a limited range of drawing and painting materials, a large bottle of water (for painting - and drinking!) and an enormous hat, I set off through the dense, rocky Bush and up a local mountainside to the nearest pocket of ferny rainforest. Painting in such conditions - very hot, humid and mosquito-plagued - was quite a challenging experience. As well as my hat, I had to wear a beekeepertype veil and smother myself in insect-repelling sprays and fluids. In addition, drawing materials behave in completely different ways from what one is used to in a studio environment. Cartridge paper takes on the consistency of limp, damp blotting paper. Crayons containing wax soften in the heat to the texture of old lipstick. Occasionally a painting will drop away in several damp segments when finished and held up to the light. Transporting these soggy, slow-drying works back to my hut was a delicate business. It is fascinating to see them now - beautifully mounted, framed and displayed in the civilised surroundings of a London gallery - and to remember them as damp, fragile, runny rectangles of paper being gingerly carried down a lonely Queensland Bush hillside in the setting sun. The pictures are my attempts to convey some of the qualities of the rainforest environment: the effect of light through fronds, ferns and leaves; the impenetrability; the humidity; the height, with light filtering down from the canopy to pick out the umbrella-like tops of the lower, prehistoric 'cycad' trees with their tempting but poisonous egg-shaped orange fruits. I can't honestly say that creating these pictures was fun - too much sweat and too many insect bites for that! - but I hope that they convey something of the atmosphere of a part of the world very different from the gentle, well-behaved Oxfordshire countryside where I spend most of the rest of my year. ŠTrevor Newton
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High Force. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK. 37.5 X 50.5 CM
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Aira Force. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK. 15 X 27 CM
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Great Gable.
Scafell Pike.
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK.
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK.
42 x 42 CM
42 x 42 CM
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Wasdale.
The Old Man of Coniston.
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK.
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK.
42 x 42 CM
42 x 42 CM
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High Street. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK. 41.5 x 58 CM
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Upper Deepdale. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK. 41.5 x 58 CM
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The Lord Mayor’s Parade.
Near Horse Guards Parade.
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA
WATERCOLOURS AND PEN & INK,
41.5 x 58 CM
27 x 15.5 CM
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Forecourt, Buckingham Palace.
Garter Ceremony, Windsor.
WATERCOLOURS AND PEN & INK,
WATERCOLOURS AND PEN & INK,
24.5 x 26 CM
19.5 x 12.5 CM
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In the Mall. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 29 x 24 CM
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Flags in St Mark’s Square. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 13.5 x 28 CM
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Venetian Regatta 1.
Venetian Windows 1.
WATERCOLOURS AND PEN & INK,
WATERCOLOURS AND PEN & INK,
27 x 23 CM
28 x 20.5 CM
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Balconies and Mooring Posts, Venice. WATERCOLOURS AND PEN & INK, 24.5 x 39.5 CM
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Fish and Corals 2. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 14.5 x 21 CM
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Startled Emperor Fish. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 29.5 x 40.5 CM
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Jellyfish and Anemones.
View from the Depths.
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA
37 x 31 CM
39 x 29.5 CM
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Corals and Anemones. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 21
41.5 x 58.5 CM
Coral Bank with Anemones. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 22
41.5 x 58.5 CM
Undergrowth with Frond. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 20 x 40 CM
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Rainforest Waterfall and Chasm. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 24
41.5 x 58 CM
Humid Rainforest. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 25
36.5 x 54 CM
Moonlit Grotto 1.
Moonlit Grotto 2.
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA
WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA
37.5 x 27.5 CM
25.5 x 22 CM
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Moonlit Grotto 3. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 24.5 x 46.5 CM
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Misty Morning at Arundel Castle. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 21.5 x 37.5 CM
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Baroque Mausoleum by Moonlight. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK, MIXED MEDIA 29
26 x 39.5 CM
1.
Front Cover: ‘Early Morning Woodland’. 40 x 53 cm. £1100.
2.
Page 6: ‘High Force’. 37.5 x 50.5 cm. £950.
3.
Page 7: ‘Aira Force’. 15 x 27 cm. £450.
4.
Page 8: ‘Great Gable’. 42 x 42 cm. £880.
5.
Page 8: ‘Scafell’. 42 x 42 cm. £880.
6.
Page 9: ‘Wasdale’. 42 x 42. £880.
7.
Page 9: ‘The Old Man of Coniston’. 42 x 42. £880.
8.
Page 10: ‘High Street’. 41.5 x 58 cm. £1250.
9.
Page 11: ‘Upper Deepdale’. 41.5 x 58 cm. £1250.
10.
Page 12: ‘The Lord Mayor’s Parade’. 41.5 x 58 cm. £1250.
11.
Page 12: ‘Near Horse Guards Parade’. 27 x 15.5 cm. £450.
12.
Page 13: ‘Forecourt, Buckingham Palace’. 24.5 x 26 cm. £450.
13.
Page 13: ‘Garter Ceremony, Windsor’. 19.5 x 12.5 cm. £280.
14.
Page 14: ‘In the Mall’. 29 x 24 cm. £580
15.
Page 15: .‘Flags in St Mark’s Square, Venice’. 13.5 x 28 cm. £475.
16.
Page 16: ‘Venetian Regatta 1’. 27 x 23 cm. £575.
17.
Page 16: ‘Venetian Windows 1’. 28 x 20.5 cm. £550.
18.
Page 17: ‘Balconies and Mooring Posts, Venice’. 24.5 x 39.5 cm. £750.
19.
Page 18: ‘Fish and Corals 2’. 14 x 21 cm. £450.
20.
Page 19: ‘Startled Emperor Fish’. 29.5 x 40.5 cm. £750.
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21.
Page 20: ‘Jellyfish and Anemones’. 37 x 31 cm. £600.
22.
Page 20: ‘View from the Depths’. 39 x 29.5 cm. £780.
23.
Page 21: ‘Corals and Anemones’. 41.5 x 58.5 cm. £1250.
24.
Page 22: ‘Coral Bank with Anemones’. 41.5 x 58.5 cm. £1250.
25.
Page 23: ‘Undergrowth with Frond’. 20 x 40 cm. £480.
26.
Page 24: ‘Rainforest Waterfall and Chasm’. 41.5 x 58 cm. £1250.
27.
Page 25: ‘Humid Rainforest’. 36.5 x 54 cm. £990.
28.
Page 26: ‘Moonlit Grotto 1’. 37.5 x 27.5 cm. £580.
29.
Page 26: ‘Moonlit Grotto 2’. 25.5 x 22 cm. £490.
30.
Page 27. ‘Moonlit Grotto 3’. 24.5 x 36.5 cm. £550.
31.
Page 28: ‘Misty Morning at Arundel Castle’. 21.5 x 37.5 cm. £450.
32.
Page 29: ‘Baroque Mausoleum by Moonlight’. 26 x 39.5 cm. £550.
33.
Outside Back Cover: ‘Pillar 1’. 42 x 42 cm. £850.
All Paintings are mounted with Museum Board and framed in individually hand made Frames.
Back Cover: Pillar 1. WATERCOLOURS, PEN & INK. 42 x 42 CM 31
www.nicholasbowlby.co.uk info@nicholasbowlby.co.uk 00 44 1892 667809 07831 255691
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