Peter started painting while an undergraduate student of Biochemistry at St Peter’s College, Oxford (1960 -64). He painted in oils and kept the drying paintings safe and hidden from other students in his College room by attaching them to the back side of a tall piece of furniture which he could move in and out. Some of the surviving works from this period are shown on the website.
By 1964 and for the next 47 years the demands of a science career, marriage and child-rearing took over and he only brought out his brushes again in retirement. But by this time he lacked the patience to wait for oil paintings to dry (even behind furniture!) and he switched to Acrylics, attempting various styles along the way.
More recently, however, he has been tempted back to using oils using Sennelier Rive Gauche oil paints which dry relatively quickly – being touch dry in about 2 days.
He has been greatly helped by the expert tuition and friendly encouragement given by Sarah Moncrieff – a local artist living in Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
Books on art theory and practice (for example by Michael Wilcox) have provided inspiration for improvement in technique. See Tweets on Twitter : https://twitter.com/PeterNewell2017
Woodwork
When he was a young boy at the junior school in the village of Wollaston (Northamptonshire) he often spent his free time (longingly) gazing at the woodwork classroom of Mr Jones where woodworking was taught to the older boys.
However, he left at age 11 to attend the local Wellingborough Grammar School where such woodwork classes were definitely not on the curriculum! So in retirement he taught himself woodwork from books (and by trial and error).
He has designed and made small pieces of furniture, working mainly in American Oak and occasionally in Mahogany. Examples of his work are shown in this website. Woodwork projects
In August 2019, I visited the famous stepping stones at Dovedale, Derbyshire, UK. The water level was unusually high and flowing fast, due a prolonged period of heavy rain.
Woodstock in Oxfordshire is wonderfully atmospheric at night with many historic buildings lit by lights on neighbouring walls. On the far left is Chaucer’s House where Thomas Chaucer lived (he five times the Speaker of Parliament in London and the son of Geoffrey Chaucer of Canterbury Tales).
The revamped Westgate Shopping Centre in Oxford (opened in Oct 2017) fascinated me with its many escalators and levels. I noticed for one of the escalators that the cover of a supporting column was partly missing. This gave an unusual insight into the insides of the structure and which I retained in the painting because it added harmonising colours.
As a great admirer of Johannes Vermeer’s work, I have tried to create a scene such as he and his contemporaries in the 17th century might have painted but with links to the 21st century. The house is typically Dutch in character and lighting. Like some other Dutch paintings of the period, I have used a bunch of keys to indicate the key to understanding the picture. The laurel wreath near the keys is associated with Clio (the Muse for History in Greek mythology) who is shown being painted by Vermeer in his painting on the wall. (You can tell it is Clio because she is carrying a large book and by the clues left on the books on the floor in the foreground of the main painting). I show Vermeer from the rear as he painted himself in “The Art of Painting”. Although Vermeer is painting Clio, he is actually looking at a young 21st century girl in a white dress (which is also shown hanging on the wall to the left of my painting). To the left of the painting on the wall is a modern abstract picture with the same colours and design (in abstract) as seen in the painting to the right. Below it is the pair of white shoes that the girl wears in the picture. To link the 21st and 17th century I have added brushes in a pot – denoting art is the link.
Peter started painting while an undergraduate student of Biochemistry at St Peter’s College, Oxford (1960 -64). He painted in oils and kept the drying paintings safe and hidden from other students in his College room by attaching them to the back side of a tall piece of furniture which he could move in and out. Some of the surviving works from this period are shown on the website.
Peter Newell's art 