Jonathan Newey is an award winning artist who lives and works in Reading, England. He comes from a strong artistic background and is believed to be the 4th generation artist in his family. He has extensive experience in art and design having studied Typographic Design at the London College of Printing and has been an art tutor in adult education for over 16 years. In 2006 he published his first book titled ’Drawing with Coloured Pencil’ and has a second book being published in April 2008 titled ’Drawing and Painting Buildings’. He works in a variety of mediums and subjects but has recently started to produce a series of abstract paintings using acrylic paint on canvas.

The abstract paintings are a new and experimental part of my work and I feel are a natural progression from the more representational pictures. I start with photographs taken if Earth from satellites and by astronauts and, along with other sketches done of cracks in walls and patterns found on the bark of trees, I work up loose sketches on paper using charcoal and oil pastels. I then discard the photos and use the sketches as a platform for my finished paintings. I use highly textured, thick paint and apply washes of liquid acrylic to the surface, rubbing off and applying more layers. The surface texture of the paintings will often dictate to me the direction and feeling that I will eventually get out of the painting. I also experiment with colours that I would not normally use in my more representational work.