Anne was born and
grew up in Bendigo, Central Victoria. Her ancestry is English and Scottish and in a
corner of her studio I spot the rampant lion of Scotland on its yellow
flag. Neither of her parents painted, but her family were artistically inclined.
Her grandfather trained as a jeweller and her father did fine furniture restoration.
From an early age she liked to paint and draw, in which pursuit she was
actively encouraged by her parents: "My mother didn't even object when
my brother and I drew on the walls", says Anne with a twinkle in her
eye.
She attended the local high school, where art was a compulsory subject.
However, the art teacher, who sadly did not have a crystal ball revealing
the results of the 2004 W.A.S. Artist of the Year competition, was not
enthusiastic about Anne's work and offered to burn everything she painted.
Not
surprisingly, Anne didn't pursue further studies in art, but trained as an
infant teacher and initially took up her teaching career in Victoria. She
spent five years teaching in country Victoria, mainly in Malmsbury, and
also taught in the Northern Territory and in Melbourne.
After ten years of school teaching, she accepted a lecturing position at
what is now the Australian Catholic University. Here she specialised in
training teachers in the field of literacy and special education for children with
learning difficulties.
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During these years Anne wrote a couple of theses and co-authored eight
childrens' educational books for Harcourt Brace, the eminent publishers of
instructional school material. She also published a math kit for use in
schools. She hasn't put the pen away completely; an article on a family
member who was a Scottish MP, is to be published in England later
this year. |
After ten years, Anne felt that academia was palling: she didn't like the
direction education was taking. She felt that it was starting to become a
matter of mass production: she was forced to give less and less individual
attention to her students.
Anne was there during the hard times, when women had to do battle against
the inequality with men in pay and professional opportunity: they were
paid less than men with equal qualifications, and they were not eligible
for senior positions like that of principal. All the years of political
infighting had taken their toll. Though still a long way from retirement age,
she was tired of it all and decided to resign.
It would have been nice if she no longer had to work and could spend all her time painting!
However, bills have to be paid, her two dogs, Alex and Brydie, have to eat
and Anne was mindful of Mr. Micawber's financial advice to David Copperfield.
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"My other piece of advice, Copperfield," said Mr Micawber,
"you know:
Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual
expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."
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She decided to put her training and experience to good use, and advertised
for private pupils who need coaching in English. She has now been teaching
privately for seven years and has never needed to advertise again – word
of mouth sends her more students than she can cope with: this year she
turned away fifty. Her students get the benefit of individual tuition and,
says Anne, " … they never seem to leave! Long after they have completed
their studies, they still keep dropping in for a cup of coffee and a chat."
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Anne did not
have formal art training, although she does receive private tuition
from John Lawry, an artist who is well-known for his trompe
l'oeil works.
ï Trompe l'oeil
painting by Anne Newman
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| She sees
herself as a
genre painter, following the school of the 16th and 17th Century
Dutch and Flemish artists who created paintings that dealt with
unidealised scenes and subjects of everyday life. |
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Rembrandt,
Breughel and Vermeer spring to mind among the pioneers of genre painting.
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Rembrandt's tender and intimate look at Hendrikje Stoffels
bathing
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"The Concert" - Vermeer's tableau vivant
of a middle-class family enjoying a sing-song.
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Genre paintings have been created wherever artists seek to celebrate and
record the everyday experiences of the middle class.
Today, those paintings provide a window into the
everyday life of a bygone era.
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During her travels abroad, Anne
discovered Yugoslav naïve art and found it very appealing.
ï
Artist: Mile Davidovic |
These Yugoslav artists paint very much in the genre school, and Anne
counts them among those whose work she admires. Anne also considers Breughel an influence and says
that she likes to think her work contains a tinge of his style.
 Pieter Breughel's famous Wedding
Feast |
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Burbank Court Christmas
Breakfast by Anne Newman |
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L.S. Lowry remains Anne's
artistic hero, and she has learnt a lot from him about "recreating" people
so that they appear to the observer to be living comfortably in the
environment that the painter as "storyteller" has created. |
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A modern type of genre painting is exemplified by
artists like
L.S.Lowry, who painted scenes from the industrial city of
Manchester in the 1920s, the works of American illustrator
Norman Rockwell,
who gives us a slice of the Beaver Cleaver-like world of American
life in the 1940s and '50s, and even
Jack Vettriano, whose exotic world of classic romance, high
society and vintage hipsters is so intriguing.
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L.S. Lowry: An Accident
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Norman Rockwell:
Sunday Morning
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Jack Vettriano:
Requiem for a Dead Admiral
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I recently visited the
Art Gallery
of South Australia, and looking at Breughel's The Tax Collector's Office
there, I realised she is right, her work does have a Breughel feel about
it. In the same gallery I came across some works by Robert Bevan, whose
work also
reminded me very much of Anne's art.
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 Horse sale at the
Barbican by Robert Bevan |
| Bendigo Secrets by
Anne Newman |
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Anne believes that art is a living craft and therefore she seeks to make
her paintings live: to tell a story and to involve the viewer: "In my
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 peace
and often I strive to 'entertain' my audience."
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Gone Fishing
by Anne Newman |
Barney Glade and his
Contentments
by Anne Newman |
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Apart from her genre paintings, Anne also paints
what she calls "decorative" works.
A Little Bit of Italy
(unfinished)
is one of
them. ð |
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She has taken part in various group exhibitions, won a Highly Commended at
the Ivanhoe Grammar School exhibition, and was voted the Waverley Arts
Society's Artist of the Year (Public Choice) for 2004. The two pictures
below were her winning entries.
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| Lavender, Fields The Storm
by Anne Newman |
The Fence Post by Anne
Newman |
Anne loves dogs
and is a keen gardener. She also likes to attend country race meetings and
have a flutter on the horses.
She is one of the newest members of the WAS, but we look forward to many
years of having her aboard as one of our tallest poppies.
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