John Newell is an award winning artist living in Pickering who records in paint what he sees and experiences. Most of his works represent a striking historic record of what is and what was in our generation’s journey through it.

He says, “Most artists work within one subject category and generallychoose to work within oil, acrylic or watercolour but my design career required mastery of many different subject categories and styles torender or illustrate design proposals for a wide assortment of clientele that ranged from retail to industrial to commercial and environmental. The requirements in terms of finished work were quite diverse. Your submission to the client becomes the ultimate jury by peers since if you win; you have a project to build..As my emotions change, rather than force myself and therefore produce mediocre work, I change everything about what I'm painting and how Ipaint to make the most of my inner raw material – the passion that’s the essence of my work. Consequently I often have paintings in three or four different styles and subject matter all on the go at once and lookinglike there are several artists in the studio with me. Luckily, I only have to feed and clothe one of them.

While I occasionally paint in oils, I do tend to use acrylic, acrylic ink, watercolour, and mixed media most of the time. I try to be as environmentally friendly as an artist as is possible and do a lot of research in that direction.

As an artist, I see public art shows as an opportunity to help broaden the minds of our viewers who often wish they could do what we do."

Contact by e-mail only for now at jondy@sympatico.ca