Mike Newton Artist

Literally meaning “back figure",the term rückenfigur is usually associated with German romantic painters, such as Caspar David Friedrich, to describe a viewpoint that includes another person seen from behind, viewing a scene spread out before the viewer.

In this series the subject gives us her back, refusing to be identified, pinned down, or boxed in, perhaps, embracing or representing the anonymity or blankness of social perceptions.  Perhaps a mood of ambivalence that makes the viewer project his or her own assumptions onto the image.

A mixture of paintings from 2006 to the present day that explore the rich history of painting but engage with the future by evoking the thin brightness of photographic or video images seen on the ubiquitous flat screen monitor.  Although they are deeply personal, acting as a vehicle for suppressed memories and emotions from my past, I recognise that this may not be discernible from the title and content of the paintings.  

Indeed I have tried to set up an absence or imbalance in the paintings such that they are open to multiple interpretations leaving room for the viewer to draw conclusions about possible meaning.

I started to experiment with metaphors for feelings rather than ‘narrative’ driven works.  These paintings come from my series of "Les Fleurs du Mal" where the traditional genre of flower painting has been ruptured through the use of nauseous colour to function as a metaphor for the death of painting.  Nothing is straightforward when we stop to think carefully about the meanings that are generally portrayed onto objects. When we proffer flowers to a loved one, the message we wish to convey is love and the beautiful corolla of petals is the symbol of that love. But the delicacy and quick decay of the corolla betrays the darker side, that flowers also signify death.

Framed works on paper that explore a variety of oil painting strategies to deny recognition of the subject and two single canvases, one combining these strategies with a traditional approach to portraiture and the other a complete abstraction of the face. The lack of a direct engagement with the subject focuses the viewer’s attention not on the identity or personality of the subject but on their psyche, perhaps embracing the anonymity or blankness of social perceptions.

Wally Byam, airstream's founder, was practically born a traveller who as a teenager worked as a shepherd, living in a two-wheeled donkey cart outfitted with a kerosene cook stove, food and water, a sleeping bag and wash pail.  He started designing and building trailers early in the 20thC and in 1934, he introduced the name 'airstream', and an American legend was born.   With its monocoque, riveted aluminium body, the Airstream had more in common with the aircraft of its day than with its predecessors and like all good designs has withstood the test of time and is still in production today.

Wish You Were Here

I have been exploring the Caravan as a subject since 2005 and this recurring motif has now featured in over 300 paintings.  Caravans can signify a number of meanings ranging from childhood memories of family holidays, through the romantic notion of travel without ties, to the underclass of society and a heightened sense of the territorial

The nude portrait used to be a contradiction in terms. Is this still the case?

Before the 20th Century the painted nude was softened and airbrushed to give a idealised vision of beauty, but to sustain this illusion of reality the face had to match the body. So rather than being a convincing likeness of an individual, the face of the sitter was painted in a generalised rather than specific way.

Today not only is the role of portraiture the domain of the photographer, but portraits of nude sitters are more likely to be photographs rather then paintings. However, these images are often idealised by digital alterations to such an extent that they are hardly naked in an honest sense; much as commercial photographs of celebrities are airbrushed and manipulated to render false perfection rather than reality.

My aim with this series of paintings is to address the contradiction between the portrait and the nude by unifying the public and the private. The challenge is to maintain a brutal eye and painterly code for both the portrait face and the portrait naked body. 

The pose for each model is similar and has nothing to do with erotic allure. They are painted in an easy standing pose, as if before a mirror engaging in an honest self appraisal of one's naked body. Consequently the gaze can be interpreted as challenging the viewer to return the sitter's bold stare out of the canvas. 

To avoid the distraction of a narrative the background to the paintings has been rendered grey, sometimes with a single band of colour, providing no sense of either space or place. The encroaching ground at the edges of the figure remind us that it isn't a person it's a painting.