Famous painter John Newberry is back in Oxford, sitting amongst his numerous watercolours of the city adorning the walls of The North wall in Summertown.
Now in his 80s, his new exhibition opens today and 64 familiar Oxfordshire scenes grace the length and breadth of the gallery, all painted between 1982-1995.
From the glaring reds and yellows, blackened lorries and smoke of St Giles’ Fair (see main pic), to scaffolding up on Cornmarket, the colleges whatever the weather, Abingdon flooded and the sombre solidity of Blenheim Palace, it’s all there for the taking.
That John had such a rich store of watercolours just biding their time in a spare room at his home in Somerset doesn’t bear thinking about, but today his work can finally enjoy some long overdue reverence from John’s many fans, watercolour fanatics and Oxford centrics.
What makes John’s work so memorable and inimitable though is not only the speed and dexterity with which he paints, never altering a painting once it’s finished, but imbuing the very landscape he depicts by sitting and painting it right there and then.
Neither is he constrained by aiming for picture perfect scenes, instead capturing the Oxford he knew and loved.
“No I’ve never been interested in the tourist perspective of Oxford five minutes before they get back on the coach,” he accedes “and I never had much time, so the paintings never took more than an hour or two because I was so desperate to get down what I saw, because it changed so quickly.”
As for the subject matter John says the scenes “more or less choose themselves even if I’m always on the look out for something to paint. But when I find it that’s it – I make a little seat on the pavement and get painting.”
Has that ever got him in trouble? “Oh yes,” he says almost proudly. “That’s why I like the photo with the policeman (see below), because people are always interested in what you are doing. Unless you place yourself where you’re not allowed and there is a language barrier which happened in Vienna and Egypt. But I wouldn’t move. Not when I have a painting to finish.”
And why sitting not standing? “Well it means I don’t have to carry an easel around which and you can put your paints around you and some bubble wrap to sit on,” he shrugs.
“But more than that sitting and looking up at a scene and everything moving around you gives you a different perspective. Because Oxford is so theatrical and always interesting, with so many hidden corners, whether it’s sunny or raining.”
Or as Bernard Richards, Emeritus Fellow at Brasenose College, Oxford, said about John:“Whenever he paints a city one is familiar with he defamiliarises it – makes one look at it again, to discover new beauties, new angles. His work has been described as ‘photographic’, except that when one tries to reproduce them with a camera one discovers that it can’t be done.”
Prolific then? Yes, I could do up to four paintings a day that way, but it’s intense, especially the Blenheim ones because I love that style of architecture.”
Having studied architecture at Cambridge before moving to Newcastle to study fine art, his fascination with buildings is self evident.
And yet John’s remit goes so much deeper than his work, his contribution to the development of art in Oxford incalculable.
As former Acting Master of Ruskin College he helped sculpt the degree course there, worked at art gallery Sanders which become a real artistic hub, and his exhibitions there were grand affairs to which the great and the good of Oxford would rush to buy one of his cityscapes. “I think I was just good at making the coffee and talking to the young dons,” he quips.
And as a result John is beloved by many. Nicky Laird, Gallery Manager at The North Wall added: “Many of the artists working in Oxford today had the pleasure of working with John or being taught by him at The Ruskin in the 1980s so he is highly regarded by the community of Oxford artists and academics. “
However after 30 years at The Ruskin, John jacked it all in, moved out of Boars Hill and went travelling around Italy and France with his partner the composer Bryan Kelly, before settling in Somerset where he continues to paint and travel – his last exhibition in oils, the first of its kind. read about it here
But now he’s back. “Yes there’s a saying that once you come to Oxford you get hooked…. and here I am.”
So why watercolours? “It’s what I’ve painted since I was a child, maybe because it has that sense of being its own art form and yet is so quick, none of this waiting for paint to dry business.”
And with that he’s off, preparing for tonight’s private view when Oxford can once more claim John Newberry as one of their own for one night only at least.
But be quick because lots of his paintings sold at the private view!
John Newberry: Recording Oxford runs until June 10. For more details go to https://www.thenorthwall.com/whats-on/john-newberry-recording-oxford/
