Inventing my own visual world has taken me on many different tracks, leading to much confusion over my identity – for me and for those who see my work.

Most artists, with maturity, find a recognisable signature style. I seem to have multiple artistic/creative personalities, which can appear on the whim of the Muse.

One of the Charles Newingtons may be inspired to follow a direction – commissioned or imagined – to paint, draw or etch… abstract, figurative, topographical, surrealist, fantastic, primal images.

It all started conventionally enough. I was born in Kent in 1950 and studied at the Byam Shaw, Camberwell and Central schools of art, going on to teach etching at the Central and lecturing at Winchester, Canterbury, Sunderland and Portsmouth schools of art.

My background from student days was as a prematurely over-specialised printmaker/etcher, immersed in alchemical techniques and concerned with the qualities of black. My thanks to Norman Ackroyd R.A. The Aquatint king, who was an inspirational teacher in the etching department at the Central school of art and who, later, put me on to the visiting lecturer circuit, teaching in many art schools in the UK, and putting me forward to take up the post of managing director of the Editions Alecto etching studio. The leading Fine Art original print publisher in London at the time.

During my time there I worked with many well-known contemporary artists and started Alecto Historical Editions, restoring and editioning antique copperplates for the Tate Gallery and the Society of Antiquaries.

I saw the light later on though, working with Patrick Procktor, who taught me how to paint with watercolour in Venice and released me from my addiction to the acid and the needle. Thereafter, the business of making etchings became a more balanced activity alongside painting and drawing.

A first journey to India in 1979 produced a series of large watercolours marking a change in direction towards more topographical subject matter. Since then I have taken many extensive working trips through Europe, North Africa, India, the Middle and Far East and the Americas.

In 1980, I set up an independent etching studio at New Crane Wharf in London with Chris Orr and Tom Piper, but left the capital in 1982 for a return to Kent and a home in Warehorne.

My first solo London exhibition in 1989 was at the Newburgh Street Gallery and I have since exhibited widely and regularly in London, UK, Europe and America until a near fatal accident in 2004.

Once fully restored, I returned to exhibiting in 2007 with paintings of India at the Rye Art Gallery, Sussex.

I now live in the Kentish seaside resort Folkestone, and exhibit regularly in the Artist’s quarter while still spending as many of the winter months as possible in Kerala, India, leaving Colleen my poor overworked secretary/minder to run the business.
However, India does not dominate my creative processes any more than any other of my styles. Another major influence stems from my 1992 visit to the painted caves of Palaeolithic man in the Dordogne region of France – the catalyst for a new visionary direction based on primal ‘animist’ imagery and the inspiration for ‘The Beasts’ collection and the White Horse hill figure.

My latest exhibition was of paintings from the Book of Revelation at the Atlantis Bookshop Gallery in London, the pagan and occult centre of the universe. It was a great ecumenical embracing gesture! …this was followed by another, east meets west, spiritual collision; The Bhagavad Gita illustrated by me and with commentaries written for the 21st century by Ranchor Prime.

The book launch and exhibition was held in May 2010 at The Alchemy Centre, London. www.alchemythecentre.com.

Solo exhibitions

1989 Newburgh Street Gallery, London
1990 Le Chateau de la Batie, France
1991 CCA Gallery, London
1991 The Londra Palace,Venice
1992 Roger Green Gallery, Kent
1993 Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1993 Westbourne Gallery, London
1993 David Gillam Gallery, London
1994 Bohm Gallery, Venice
1994 Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1994 Westbourne Gallery, London
1995 Rye Art Gallery, Sussex
1995 CCA Galleries, Oxford
1995 Roger Green Gallery, Kent
1996 Westbourne Gallery, London
1996 Fairfax Gallery, Kent
1996 Roger Green Gallery, Kent
1996 Westbourne Gallery, London
1997 Fairfax Gallery, Kent
1997 Rye Art Gallery, Sussex
1998 Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
1998 Bohm Gallery, Venice
1999 Headcorn Gallery Kent
1999 Westbourne Gallery, London
1999 Le Chateau de la Batie, France
1999 Kent County Council Travelling Show
2000 The Sassoon Gallery, Folkestone
2001 Pfizer, Sandwich, Kent.
2001 The Agency Club, London
2001 The Metropole Galleries, Folkestone
2002 The Tilla Lindig Gallery, Munich
2002 The Rye Art Gallery, Sussex
2003 Westbourne Gallery, London
2007 The Rye Art Gallery, Sussex
2009 The Georges House Gallery, Kent
2009 Atlantis Book shop Gallery, London
2010 Atlantis Book Shop Gallery, London
2010 Exhibition and Book Launch Bhagavad Gita, The Alchemy, London

Group exhibitions

Recent Group Exhibitions
Richmond Gallery. London
Redfern Gallery. London
Barbican Concourse Gallery . London.
The Powell Street Gallery . San Francisco.
Scarborough Gallery of Modern Art
The Air Gallery . London.
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
The Contemporary Print Fair. London.
The Towner Art Gallery. Eastbourne.
The Royal Museum and Art Gallery. Canterbury.
The Kensington Art and Design show. London.
The Olympia Art and antiques fair. London.
2009 Chimaera Gallery Folkestone, Kent
2009 West End Gallery Smarden, Kent
2009 The Rye Gallery, Sussex