Trevor Newton

TREVOR NEWTON was born in Lancashire, England in 1959. He studied History of Art at Cambridge University and later became the first full-time teacher of the subject at Eton College. His work has been commissioned, exhibited and sold by Christie’s, published by the Oxford University Press and has appeared in publications as diverse as Country Life, Harpers & Queen, The Independent on Sunday, The Literary Review and The Bookplate Collector’s Quarterly.

Welcome to my Inaugural Online Exhibition and Sale of original artwork:

LEAVES FROM AN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIAN’S SKETCHBOOK

In the Gallery you will find around two hundred drawings, mostly of buildings, made during my travels over the past few years. From an early age I have been fascinated by architecture and by drawing in equal measure and have always felt a need to record what I see on paper. Whenever I am travelling I have the means of making a sketch on me in the form of a small pad and pen and when something grabs my attention, out they come. A few lines often suffice to capture what I want and later I add the colour - and the mood - using methods described by Professor Watkin below.

Few of these drawings are more than about A4 in size and many are not much larger than a postcard. They are my equivalent of snapshots; small, informal attempts to capture an architectural likeness. Some of my sketches, particularly those made in Australia (see appropriate web pages), I mount in albums to keep; others, like the ones in these galleries, I offer for sale.

If you would like to buy a picture, the process is very simple. Just go to the ‘Contact Us’ page and follow the easy instructions for credit card payment. Your drawing will then mounted, securely packaged and dispatched to you by Recorded Delivery. Mounting, packing and worldwide postage are included in the price.

THE DRAWINGS

There are - at the moment - twelve categories. These are fairly self-explanatory but here are a few notes to help you.

N.B. New sketches may be added to the galleries at any time - and exhibitions of whole new 'suites' of drawings will appear about four times a year.

To view the drawings, click on the gallery tab in the menu at the top of this page and then on the category of your choice. Click on individual pictures for enlarged versions, details of price etc. To return to the gallery, click on the picture, or use the 'Back' button. Please be aware that for ease of downloading, drawings have been scanned to a relatively low resolution. The originals are, of course, much crisper in detail and texture.

1. VENICE: Rapid attempts - some drawn from the deck of a bobbing vaporetto - to capture something of the colour and delicacy of Venetian architecture.

2. LONDON: Things and places seen on my rambles around the Capital.

3. COUNTRY HOUSES: Favourite buildings sketched during my travels around the British Isles.

4. CASTLES: I love drawing these because of their boldness and powerful shadow effects. Many of these drawings, particularly those of the Loire chateaux, were drawn in a small pocket sketchbook. I like the idea of multum in parvo; of a mighty building captured on a tiny piece of paper.

5. OXFORD: The spires and towers of Oxford, to be more precise.

6. LIVERPOOL: A little sequence of sketches of my native city made during a day’s walking tour of favourite sights and corners in early August 2006. Some of these are preparatory drawings for a series of larger pictures which I want to exhibit in 2008 to mark, in my own small way, the city’s year as European Capital of Culture. The buildings of Liverpool are second only to those of London in terms of grandeur, quality, impact and interest. Go there.

7. GOTHIC: Impressions of churches and cathedrals conveyed in a dashing, rapid manner which makes quite a lot of mess but is very satisfactory. Some of these drawings were dipped in a sink full of water to allow the ink to run in interesting ways.

8. SEEN IN PASSING: Exactly what it says.

9. GRAVEYARDS: I have spent hundreds - probably thousands - of hours in cemeteries of all kinds making what I call my ‘Graveyard Gleanings’; small records, some in notebook form, of the sculpture, lettering, metalwork, inscriptions etc. to be found in these invariably (to me) fascinating places. For the more morbidly minded.

10. ARCHITECTURAL FANTASIES: When I was a small boy I wanted to be an architect - until, that is, a family friend who was one told me how much a sound grasp of Maths and Physics was involved in the construction of buildings. My interest was always rather more decorative and theatrical - and I have continued my boyhood doodling into adult life. Here are some results.

11. 18th CENTURY PASTICHES: A continuation of the above, really, but drawn in sepia ink on paper ‘aged’ to a recipe of my own. These were drawn for fun under an architectural pseudonym, ‘Spufini’. My own name and the date appear in indelible ink on the back, however, in case anyone should accuse me of forgery!

12. BAROQUE EXCURSIONS: Rapid drawings of details of 18th century buildings, mostly in Italy, Spain and Germany. Prague features largely, too. My aim here is to give a feeling of the drama and sweep of the Baroque style in general rather than just to create a likeness of a particular building.

P.S. The AUSTRALIA pages are a medley of extracts from some of the illustrated journals which I have kept on my travels around this great Island Continent. My interest is primarily in the colonial architecture of Australia’s far-flung and often wonderfully frozen-in-time country towns. I have covered hundreds of thousands of kilometres on my travels over fifteen years and the few words and images in this section represent only a tiny (and out-of-context) proportion of the original material. I would be delighted to talk to anyone interested in publishing a selection of this work. A five page ‘picture essay’ adapted from my journals appeared in the April / May edition of Outback, Australia’s leading magazine of country life.

Extract from an Appreciation of the artist by the distinguished architectural historian Professor David Watkin of the University of Cambridge:

“Trevor Newton has developed over the last few years into one of the most individual, lively and atmospheric of all English recorders of buildings and interiors. It is not his aim to make a photographic record of buildings and scenes, but to penetrate their character, and to convey their spirit. This is a consequence of the fact that his chief delight is in travelling and drawing, so that his pictures are essentially records of life.

"His work has a vivacious and spontaneous quality, sometimes verging on the impressionistic, which gives the idea of it having been rapidly done. In fact, it is the product of much time and care. For example, even a small drawing can involve the use of as many as eleven different materials, including pencil, wax crayon, Indian ink applied with a pen and Chinese ink applied with a brush. Unconventional materials such as correction fluid and household bleach are occasionally applied to achieve highlights.

"His memorable evocations of scenes in places such as London, Cambridge and the Australian Outback, of garden buildings and country houses, are enriched by his love of the eccentric, the grand, the deserted and the half forgotten. With his memorable handling of line and mass, conveyed through unexpected colours and textures, he will become a cult figure.”

In January 2004 Trevor Newton was commissioned by Christie’s to provide a series of watercolour drawings to decorate a catalogue for a major antiques auction at their South Kensington salerooms.

One of the drawings was used for the cover of the catalogue and the entire collection was later exhibited by the auctioneers at a special evening reception. The drawings then formed part of the ensuing sale. All were sold. Trevor Newton was the first artist to have his work commissioned and used in this manner by Christie’s.

During the past year Trevor Newton's work has been exhibited (and sold) at the Watercolour and Drawings Fair at the Royal Academy and and at the 20/21 International Art Fair at the Royal College of Art in London.