Painting Poetically – an interview with Rowan Newton
Whenever anyone asks me which artists I think they should invest in, Rowan Newton is always on my list of suggestions. Not only because his work will inevitably go up in value, but because he creates strikingly beautiful paintings that it would be impossible for anyone to dislike.
BENJAMIN MURPHY: The people you paint are usually (but not always) facing the viewer, with their chins raised in a confident, almost defiant pose. What is it that attracts you to these strong confident types?
ROWAN NEWTON: Growing up in Brixton (South London) as a child, I was surrounded by strong boisterous females. Whether that was on the bus to school, hanging out on the street, or my friend’s sisters, these confident women were all around me. When growing up, it felt as though the women of Brixton were not to be messed with. I was also raised by a single mother, as well as my two grandmothers, who were all strong female characters in my life. When I began to paint I felt these women were not being represented. The art world seemed full of whimsical representations of women that needed saving somehow. These were not the kind of women I knew, so I wanted to give the women I knew a voice in the art world.
BM: You mainly focus on the face of the subject rather than the full body, what are you able to get from a face that you don’t get from the full body?
RN: My work, the use of colour, and the style in which I paint is to all help convey a strong sense of emotion through the work. Be it the inner emotion of the sitter, or an emotional narrative I want to tell through the painting. We as people read emotions through the face a lot more than through body language, and are constantly scanning people’s faces to read their response when interacting with each other. We spend so much time looking at the faces of others and ourselves. You look at a mirror that just shows your face a lot more often than your full body. People now take ‘selfies’ which just show their face, rather than pictures of each other in full profile. As a result it is easier to convey these emotions from painting a portrait, whether it's through the eyes or expression on their face. To capture those same emotions in a figurative painting, is more difficult, but is certainly the direction I want to take my work in. I have recently been taking on that challenge and will persist in doing so. Learning how I can creatively achieve the same sense of emotion of my past work, in figurative painting.
BM: You paint in both the traditional medium of oil paint, and the more contemporary one of spray paint. What does each bring to your practice?
RN: With spray paint the result is a lot more instant. Allowing me to get the outcomes that I wish from it in a much shorter time. But on the flip side it means you can't really manipulate it too much. With the oil paint however, due to its slow drying times, (which can be frustrating) it means you can manipulate the paint and really play around with it, both before applying the paint and even once it's on the canvas. It's just fun exploring a balance in using the more traditional medium, alongside a more contemporary medium and how they can complement each other.
BM: Your earlier paintings contained more yellow and green, whilst your recent works are almost entirely in purples and blues. These newer works seem colder and more melancholy, is this an intentional direction change?
RN: I wouldn't say intentional as such, it was more a reflection of how I was feeling within myself at the time and that translated into my work. How aware of that I was at the time, I'm not sure. But whereas earlier works reflected strength and empowerment that was not the zone I was emotionally in a couple of years back. Dealing with a difficult relationship made me feel lonely, reflective and still, if that makes sense. So in turn that ended up coming through in my work.
BM: The textures you paint into your faces are often rough and thick brush strokes, with many splashes and drips. This is diametrically opposed to the way people would traditionally describe beauty, e.g. smooth etcetera. How has this style of painting beauty evolved?
RN: It just evolved naturally over time. Traditionally artist would represent beauty in the most obvious manner they could. As you say smooth and beautiful, but over time artists have explored the idea of what beauty is and how we can reflect an inner beauty also. How we can turn something so raw, rough and messy and present it in a beautiful way. I say it happened naturally because I believe it grew from a world that was also evolving. As cities grew around us, machines, and different forms of vehicles being created. The human race started to see things of beauty in what may have seemed like ugly objects. Art started to reflect this way of thinking. Now there is another group of artists, including myself, representing that same feeling. We grew up in an age of spray cans being used for the first time to create graffiti on the streets. We now want to use those same spray cans to create both that same chaos and beauty in our work. Our work evolving in terms of techniques used, due to new art mediums we were exposed to growing up.
BM: Raw and textured portraiture is very popular at the moment, why do you think it has come back into vogue?
RN: Yeah I guess it has to a certain extent. I'm not really sure why though. It could be because people are looking for a reflection of their city or even their life within the paintings they choose to hang in their homes. Works with this raw texture reflect this. Our city and lives are filled with rough edges, layers, and complications so to speak. It's not all neat and smooth and tidy, but there's still a beauty in it all. The artwork reflects this aspect to people’s lives. Plus I also think we enjoy as humans the aspect of wanting to touch and feel texture and rough surfaces, so we're teased and attracted to the opportunity to be able to do that with a piece of art.
BM: To me your work feels like contemporary expressionism, do you feel an affinity to the original expressionist movement?
RN: Not really. It's not so much a reference for me in terms of my work. Abstract art is what I'm a big fan of, trying to piece together a face or body from abstract mark making is what I had in mind. But when thinking about it, I guess the work is expressive mark making to capture the emotion of the sitter, but not something I feel an affinity too.
BM: The titles you use are often quite cryptic and unusual (Delphic Ambiguity) for example. How important are the titles and what do you hope they add to the painting?
RN: They are really important for me. It's a continuation of the narrative of the painting. Art is there for you to creatively express yourself, and that creative aspect I believe should carry on through the title. I want the title to create a sense of mystery and inquisitiveness just as much as the actual art work. I'm a big fan of poetry, so this is my opportunity to have a bit of a poetic moment.
BM: How much would you say your portraits are of the people you paint, and how much of your own personality do you paint into them?
RN: I think it probably ends up being mainly my own personality. It's my therapy, it's my chance to communicate. I'm not so great at communicating verbally, so instead I'm learning how to communicate visually. But I do also think that I paint people that I see myself in. People that reflect certain aspects of my own personality. So there is still definitely a sense of the sitter and where they are at in life within the painting.
BM: I believe you have a print release coming up with Jealous gallery, with whom you've had a long-standing relationship. What can you tell us about the release?
RN: Yeah that’s right, this print marks the fourth year I’ve been working with Jealous now. After my first print with Jealous, I came up with this idea to do a print that was representational of the illustration side of my practice. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do it in a series of four illustration based prints over the duration of four years. With each print following in a theme of size and having three screened colours, plus a hand applied element. I wanted these hand applied elements to be taken from my other practices, so I used painting with a brush on the 1st print, then the application of gold leaf for the 2nd, using water colours for the 3rd and finally for this last print in the series, using spray paint. I’m really pleased with the conclusion. The print is called SUBSEQUENT, and will be released at the Art Car Boot Fair on Sunday the 12th of June, for a one day only special price of £70- for those who pick up the print at the fair they will also receive a specially screen printed tote bag, along with a sticker and postcard of my work.
BM: What do the titles of these prints mean to you, if anything?
RN: All 4 prints are capturing various angles of the female figure, top half, bottom half, full figure followed lastly by a close up of the face. Apart from the fact that these are fragments of the female body that I regularly draw and paint, the titles were also representational of where I was in my career. The 1st being called ALONE, at the time I felt the job of being an artist was lonely, I wasn’t sure who was looking out for my best interests and who I should work with. The 2nd being HINDSIGHT, was the feeling of me looking back over my career and debating what were good decisions and what I could have done differently. The 3rd print was called ALLUVION, which was about the sense of drifting and still feeling that I hadn’t quite found what I was looking for and wanted from the art world. This final print is called Subsequent, it about looking to the future confidently, and succeeding at my goals.
