John Coverdale Newberry

Available for sale from Big Sky Fine Art in the English county of Dorset, this original oil painting is by John Coverdale Newberry and dates from 1970. <br> The painting on artist’s canvas board is presented and supplied in a sympathetic contemporary frame and is float mounted (which is shown in these photographs) and behind clear view anti-reflective Tru Vue UltraVue® UV70 glass. <br> This vintage painting is in very good condition, commensurate with its age. It wants for nothing and is supplied ready to hang and display.<br> The painting is signed lower left.<br> The painting was created when the artist was living at Barn Cottage, Old Boars Hill, Boars Hill, Oxford (nowadays postcode OX1 5JQ).<br> <br> John Newberry is a noted British artist and teacher with a particular talent for architecture and composition. He was born in Horsham, Sussex and educated at Kingswood in Bath. After completing National Service, he began reading architecture at Cambridge but changed courses and moved to study Fine Art at Newcastle under Lawrence Gowing and Victor Pasmore. He graduated in Fine Art in 1960.<br> <br> Newberry then moved to Oxford where he taught at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art between 1963 and 1989, retiring as Acting Head. Between 1986-1988 he also taught landscape painting at a school in Umbria, Italy. Whilst teaching in Oxford Newberry held exhibitions in prominent Oxford galleries, including the Ashmolean, Picture Gallery, the Central Library and at St. Edwards.<br> <br> Newberry exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy and the Royal Institute. In 1989 he won the Watercolour Foundation Prize at the Royal Watercolour Society. From 1990 he had several solo shows at Chris Beetles Ltd. In 2019, after an absence of thirty years, a major exhibition of Newberry’s work was held at The North Wall, Oxford; John Newberry, New Colour Compositions. This entirely new portfolio of figures in compositions was met with critical acclaim.<br> <br> Newberry is well known for his paintings of landscapes and buildings, always in front of his subject and often completed in one sitting. He uses watercolours for these works because they can be used very quickly and have a natural brilliance on white paper.<br> Many of these pieces are small, but with wide-angled views. Newberry is also however proficient in oil painting, which he does in a studio where he can concentrate on composition and groups of figures.<br> <br> Much of John Newberry’s work has been painted abroad, particularly Egypt, North Africa, Italy and France. Newberry initially retired to Umbria, but later lived in Southwest France and then returned to Britain in 2016. He now lives in Somerset with his partner composer Bryan Kelly. <br> <br> © Big Sky Fine Art<br> <br> This painting depicts a geometric abstract frame of a metallic appearance on which a number of adult figures are climbing. It has a wonderful three-dimensional feel and there is a sense of strength, grace and ease about the various poses which the figures strike in their progress upwards. The background is a pale green, the figures are dark skinned and wear various close-fitting garments of white, lemon, turquoise and lilac. It is a well-composed interesting and uplifting piece which engages the viewer.