Penned In

Penned In- by Greg Newbold

24" x 32" - Oil

This is a companion piece to my painting titled "Unburdened". It was part of my MFA thesis project at the University of Hartford Low residency MFA in Illustration. We were asked to come up with a "dream project" and then create it. I had always wanted to make some paintings based on my experiences on the family farm growing up which included the ritual of yearly sheep shearing. In this piece I capture the uncertainty of the animals as they wait for their time to be relieved of their winter burden of wool. I still have a lot of material to draw from in this series (see thumbnail drawings here) and more paintings are planned including one that is already on the board. I hope to get started on it in the next little while as there has already been some interest expressed it..

Winter Coats

Winter Coats - by Greg Newbold, 2008

 Oil on mounted canvas panel- 18 3/4" x 12"
Collection of Richard and Jan Newbold

Last night I fell asleep before I turned off the cooler. Big mistake.On hot nights we let it run hoping that by morning the house will be cool enough to withstand the heat of the day without becoming a sweatbox. That's one of the drawbacks of an older house with no central air ( but I also don't relish the thought of actually paying for central air so we make do with the swamp cooler).  Well this morning we were tempted to turn on the furnace, but resisted. Cold weather will be here soon enough, and I am just going to enjoy the mild fall weather. This particular painting is one I did last winter as part of my MFA thesis project. It is based on photos taken of the animals at our old family homestead. Our family all spent many years caring for the homestead and the animals there as my Great Aunt Mame had no children of her own. I have many fond memories of feeding and caring for the sheep and other animals there on frigid winter afternoons. My Aunt Jan felt the same and bought the painting as a Christmas present for my Uncle Richard last year (they can name several of the sheep in the picture, so it was very personal to them). I truly believe that the best art emerges from the things we know the best and love the most.

Using Collage and Foil Leaf

By Sliver of Moonlight (Angel Muse) - Greg Newbold

acrylic, metal leaf and collage - 18" x 24"

One of the best things about grad school at the University of Hartford was the travel assignments. Each "away trip" included an assignment to capture something about our week in each city. After our Pasadena, CA trip I decided I wanted to do an angel, roughly tying the theme to "The City of Angels" as well as making her an artistic muse. I experimented a lot with different materials including collaged paper and photos and faux gold leaf.. Initially, the pasted on elements included photos from our trip.

Collage and leafing texture with Sponge Bob peeking out at the top

During the experimentation process, most of the details in the photos got covered over and if I use this process again, I think I will more carefully plan the value pattern so that more of the details are evident, but overall, I like the result. You can still get a little glimpse of Sponge Bob in there from our visit to Nickelodeon.

Revelation

Revelation - 19" x 13" acrylic

This one is from the Scuffy project also. This is the moment when he looks back and realizes that all the stuff that scared him was really just everyday stuff. All of these pictures are done acrylic over a digital underpainting/drawing. I printed out the drawing after I added some color tones and then mounted it on museum foamcore and painted over the top. Here's a look back at the resolution of the story after Scuffy has captured the crow.

Attack of the Laundry

Attack of the Laundry - 19" x 13" acrylic

This painting is from the picture book that my wife and I wrote together called "Scuffy, a Scarecrow's Tale". In the story, Scuffy is scared of everything and imagines all sorts of dangers (including rabid scarecrow eating shirts and sheets).  I have been shopping it around to publishers (it's been rejected a few times so far) but no taker yet. It was part of my MFA thesis project so I have a complete story and dummy all sketched out and four finished paintings. It's ready to finish and I would love to have somebody pick it up. The closest we came was one of my previous publishers liked it a lot, but were already doing a Jane Yolen scarecrow story. Well, who really wants to compete with Jane Yolen? I posted another picture from this series a few weeks back.

My Artistic Pedigree Back To Howard Pyle

As I mentioned in a previous post, I can claim my artistic lineage all the way back to Howard Pyle. During my first summer of MFA work at the University of Hartford,  one of our instructors, Alice "Bunny" Carter informed us all that we were now all descendants of Pyle. One of my students recently asked about it, so for all of my students, here is your chain that now links you back to the "Father of American Illustration", Howard Pyle.

Howard Pyle (seen here circa 1898)

Taught Walter Everett (seen below as a young artist)

Who taught Henry Pitz

(below is a charcoal drawing of Pitz by Ben Soloway-1960)

Who taught Al Gold (no picture available)

Who taught Alice "Bunny" Carter

(Artist, Author and Professor at San Jose State University)

Who taught me.

Everyone's pedigree goes further and deeper to other sources through other teachers, but it's fun to look at my connections to this most revered of all illustration teachers.

Previous post on the work of Walter Everett

Fort Worth, TX Rodeo

The twisting starts right out of the chute.

About three seconds in, things start to get hairy.

The cowboy takes one on the head.

A rodeo clown draws the bull away from the fallen cowboy.

During an MFA trip to Forth Worth Texas, we had the chance to attend a rodeo and take pictures from close up. I was struck with how enormous and powerful the rodeo stock animals were. We could actually feel the pounding of the hooves and at one point, a bucking bull came so close that I had dirt sprayed on me from the flailing hooves. I was clicking away with my multiple exposure setting and didn't realize how close he was until he was almost on top of me (separated by the gates of course). That got the heart thumping a bit. Here's a sequence of photos leaving a cowboy tossed on his head (he eventually walked away under his own power, but he took a hard fall. It was challenging to get photos amid such quick action, but I got some interesting results.

Unburdened

Unburdened - Oil on canvas - 24" x 32"

by Greg Newbold

Reference photo- one of several that I chose to work from

I rarely if ever work from a single photo

I use information from many pictures and create a composite.

Unburdened final drawing - black prismacolor on paper

After the 51's sketch, I knew that some of this imagery would filter into my MFA thesis project, but I wasn't sure in what form. I reevaluated all my sketches as well as photos and chose a few pictures to work from. I grew up helping take care of the family "farm". My great Aunt Mame lived there until her death at age ninety-nine. She was born and grew up there (along with my grandmother). After her marriage to my Uncle Henry, they bought the place and lived out their lives there. She was widowed in her her seventies and having no kids of her own, it fell to us to take care of things. One activity that I always enjoyed, despite the hard nature of the labor, was taking care of the animals. Each spring the shearer would come and relieve the sheep of their winter coats. I took several rolls of film on two different occasions and this is what I based this painting on, ten or more years after the fact. This ended up being a breakthrough project for me as it was the first major scale oil painting I had attempted. Up to this point, I had spent fifteen years painting in acrylic and it was a big jump for me to pull the oils back out. I am pretty pleased with the results and the subject matter is close to my heart. I am sure this was just the first of many pictures revolving around this sort of subject matter as I reach back to my roots for picture making fodder.

Here's the Deal

"Here's the Deal" - acrylic - 19" x 13"

First thumbnail sketch - approx. 2" wide - roller pen

Final Drawing - approx. 4.5" wide - black Prismacolor

During my first session at the University of Hartford Limited Residency MFA-Illustration my assignments included writing and illustrating my own children's book. I spent many a midsummer night the first week creating a thumbnail dummy book version of "Scuffy, A Scarecrow's Tale", a project my wife and I had been writing. The story follows the adventures of our hero Scuffy as he overcomes his fear of just about everything in order to defeat his nemesis the crow. The full dummy book included a refined manuscript and black and white drawings for each spread. I also completed four finished paintings based on these drawings. I am extremely satisfied with the project so far and am in the process of hunting down the right publisher (anyone willing to have a look?). Here is a bit of the process.