John Newberry: Recording Oxford

About

Although Oxford’s skyline has since been transformed, the views of the St Giles Fair, Oxford’s colleges, cobbled streets and river walks remain unchanged.

Born in 1934, at school in Bath, John did National Service and studied Architecture at Cambridge when Leslie Martin was Professor. After three years he transferred to read Fine Art at Newcastle under Lawrence Gowing and Victor Pasmore.

John came to Oxford in 1962 to teach part-time at the Ruskin School of Drawing. He also worked at Sanders where he prepared annual exhibitions of English drawings and watercolours for Kyril Bonfiglioli (part-owner, art dealer and comic mystery writer). There John was able to study ‘ in the hand ‘ a large range of watercolours. Other than that he was untaught in the medium – it was not a subject in art schools. His own watercolour exhibitions at Sanders became annual events and this is a chance to see some of those works.

When Fine Art became a degree and the Ruskin moved from the Ashmolean to the High Street, John became full-time with a post at Brasenose College. From 1987-1989, he was the Ruskin’s Acting Master. John retired in 1989 and lives with his partner, the composer Bryan Kelly, in Somerset. John was made a full member of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1995.