Anne Newman
Anne Newman: Artist
When I first started painting I saw myself as a genre painter striving to follow the school of the C16th and C17th Flemish and Dutch artists who created paintings that dealt with unidealized scenes and subjects of everyday life.
Genre painting was popularised in the 1500s by Pieter Bruegel, the Elder and I like to think some of my paintings, such as Burbank Court Christmas Breakfast contain a tinge of Bruegel.

Genre painting flourished in Holland in the C17th especially in the works of artists such as De Hooch, Vermeer and Holbein. Genre painters depict everyday people in typical scenes at home, at work, and at play.
In my genre paintings I endeavour to create a scene that invites the viewer to engage in the composition: often to take part in a journey or be part of a story. The emotional response I aim to evoke is usually one of humour or community and often I strive to "entertain" my audience. Sometimes a painting might invite the viewer to explore a scene that has been created from my memories of growing up in Central Victoria or from my constant observations of everyday life in urban or rural Australian communities.

I was born and raised in the gold mining city of Bendigo. My love of the countryside around this area and the early buildings, especially the miners cottages, inspire me to this day. The collage below shows some of my paintings which were "born" in this wonderful environment.

I also love recreating the wooden fence posts which adorn the Australian landscape and which offer a home to the amazing species of grasses which grow here. A painter's paradise!

I have roamed the Australian landscape since I could walk and many of my paintings arise from childhood memories wandering through the rural areas, forests and seaside areas of Victoria with my parents - having picnics, collecting wood, wild flowers, and yes - cow manure for my parents' garden!!!

And I openly admit to being in love with the Australian eucalpytus tree in all its species.

In contrast, one of my greatest loves is to explore back lanes - the world over and not just in Australia. Here you will find a wealth of ideas for future paintings.

But my real love is to paint buildings especially ones with lots of red bricks, fading weatherboards or walls where the rendering is pealing away from the bricks and a litle mould or moss is growing in the cracks.

