Connect
To Top

Art & Life with Greg Newbold

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Newbold.

Greg, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
Like many artists, my creative journey began when I was very young. My earliest memories are of drawing pictures, coloring with crayons and looking through books to see all the wonderful pictures. As I grew older, my parents recognized the passion I had for creating and fueled it with endless supplies and encouragement. My dad worked in advertising, and he would bring home end rolls of newsprint and my brothers and I would roll them out on the unfinished cement floor of the basement and draw incredibly detailed battle scenes or visions of underwater adventures with all the associated creatures and dangers. As I grew older, all my friends and siblings found other interests, but I kept drawing. Somewhere around early high school, I realized that art was going to be my life’s pursuit and I dove in with both feet. I earned a bachelor’s degree in visual communications and design with an emphasis in illustration.

For a couple of years following graduation, I worked at an educational software company doing their artwork. It was a job that I had secured early during my college career and had afforded me the luxury of flexibility in my class and work life and helped me avoid student loans. I had reached a point where I was dissatisfied with the job and was looking for a way out when the pivotal day arrived. The day after the birth of our second child, I got a message from work asking me to come in as soon as possible. There had been rumors floating around the office for weeks, so I pressed my boss until she admitted that yes, the entire art crew had been laid off.

Mary Chapin Carpenter famously sang that “sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.” Splat! I was the bug. I instantly went from full-time employee to unemployed and fully dependent on my freelance work to provide for my growing family. It was scary. But I also realized that I was the one driving the car. I turned that bug and windshield moment into an opportunity to pursue my art full time. There have been bumps in the road and sometimes there is no clear map, but it’s been a rewarding journey so far.

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
For the past twenty plus years, I have been able to make a living doing my artwork. For a majority of that time, I have created illustrations for clients all over the country such as American Express, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Random House, FedEx Office, Boy Scouts of America, Heinz and many more. I have illustrated a dozen children’s books, the most recent ones being in collaboration with my wife and author Amy Newbold. If Picasso Painted a Snowman and If da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur (both from Tilbury House Publishers) take readers on a journey through famous artists and their styles by imagining how artists like Picasso, Salvador Dali or Grant Wood might have painted a snowman or how da Vinci, Warhol or Frida Kahlo might have painted a dinosaur. Of course, the greatest fun of those projects was learning about each artist and trying to emulate their style in a new work that pays homage to, and at the same time helps kids recognize, the unique hallmarks of each artist’s style. It was a ton of fun and the good times continue as we are now working on If Monet Painted a Monster, which will be out this fall.

I also love to paint outdoors and create gallery paintings. This is a more recent pursuit that stemmed from a challenge I gave myself in graduate school about ten years ago. I started the MFA program at the University of Harford, with two distinct goals. One was to learn how to paint digitally, and the other was to conquer the demons that prevented me from learning how to paint in oil.

Up to that point, I had painted exclusively in acrylic paint in quite a time-consuming style. Budgets in illustration had not increased significantly for many years, and I was starting to lose projects because I was not able to paint and deliver art digitally. That was something I knew I needed to remedy. The learning curve was significant, but I can now paint digitally with the same look as my earlier hand painted work. Digital painting is both quicker and more forgiving than acrylic and gives me the flexibility to take projects  I previously would have been unable to do.

The oil painting thing was a different animal altogether. For some reason, the medium had always intimidated me, and I had no idea how to approach it. I gave myself the challenge to learn to paint plein air landscapes in oil and pursue gallery art. My first attempts at painting outdoors were miserable failures. They were sooo bad. I took a couple of workshops from noted painters and improved quickly as I transferred my painting knowledge to this new medium. I started to sell my paintings, and the confidence grew, but I kept those terrible first attempts as a reminder of how far I have progressed. I am currently represented by Mark Sublette Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona and David Ericson Fine Art in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Medicine Man Gallery is doing a special exhibition running March 8- April 15, 2019, entitled “Along the Distant Mesa, An Homage to Maynard Dixon.” I am pleased to have my paintings represented in this show along with many other very talented artists.

What’s the message or inspiration? What do you hope people take away from it? What should we know about your artwork?

If I look objectively at my work, I see patterns that make my work unique. I have lately had people tell me that they recognize my oil paintings as mine even though they look significantly different from most of my illustration work, which has always been distinctly my own. I think that’s a high compliment and one I have worked for a long time to merit. Creating is not unlike one’s personal handwriting. It is unique to the artist and nearly impossible to fake. All your experiences, skills, preferences and loves are filtered into your art. Finding your voice is key to artistic expression. That said, I believe that overall, my work is about making the world a more beautiful place. There is so much of the negative and ugly in today’s popular culture, and in today’s art markets there is a tendency to go for shock value or call something mundane and ugly “art” simply because it is presented in a museum or gallery setting. I believe a piece of art should stand on its own merits and evoke an emotional connection with the viewer. There should be a certain amount of thought and skill evident in a piece of art that contributes to that response. The moment when the souls of both artist and viewer commune through a piece of art is magical, and that is the connection I seek in my work. I’m blessed every day to be able to create and inject a little of my own soul onto the canvas.

How do you think about success, as an artist, and what quality do you feel is most helpful?
As a younger artist, I was obsessed with gaining certain recognition or awards. I misguidedly felt that if I could reach a certain milestone or win a particular industry medal, I would have arrived and found success. While those markers are a good indication of one’s trajectory toward being successful, I have since come to realize that awards are outward validations and are ultimately unsatisfying, both in the pursuit and the arrival. In recent years I have placed much more value on the sheer fact that I get to create every day. I love seeing the joy a painting brings to a collector who finds they love the object so much, that they want to take it home and live with it. Awards are transitory and for the most part, beyond an artist’s control. All I can really control is my effort toward making good work and trying to learn to be a better artist each day.

I also find that other aspects of my life are much more rich than they were years ago when I was obsessively chasing this phantom dream of “success.” I used to work every day, weekends included. Though I still work many Saturdays, I now take Sunday off completely to spend with family and spiritual pursuits. Having one non-negotiable rest day a week is so valuable to me in keeping focus on what really matters and helping me recharge for the week ahead. I heartily endorse a day of rest, whatever that looks like for you.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
My picture books are available through your local bookseller, Amazon or through the links on my wife Amy’s website:

https://www.amynewbold.com/books/

My personal website is undergoing a long overdue overhaul, but a good selection of my work can be seen at www.gregnewbold.com (currently pointing to a portfolio site) or at https://www.directoryofillustration.com/artist.aspx?AID=740

My oil paintings are currently available at Medicine Man Gallery in Tucson, Arizona:

https://www.medicinemangallery.com/western-fine-art/southwestern-contemporary-painters/newbold-greg

I’m also available for private commission work. Contact me through my website.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
All art courtesy Greg Newbold
Artist photo by Amy Newbold

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in