Rowan Newton is a painter and illustrator from South London. Growing up in metropolitan Brixton, surrounded by graffiti, Rowan was drawn to bold and vibrant imagery from an early age. His childhood appreciation for the street artist’s ability to transform unlikely spaces into pieces of art, echoes in his work today.
Rowan’s style reflects the dichotomies of the inner-city landscape. Using spray paint, acrylics, and pen, he creates pieces that are gritty, provocative, and full of character. His tenacious use of bright colours is matched by his unorthodox choice of canvas; wood that he sources from various parts of London. Rowan paints that which he finds beautiful, and so he often captures the confidence of women with equally confident brush strokes, but does not lose the delicateness of their femininity. His work is full of texture with splatter, drips, and layering complimenting the depth of his artistic subjects. Rowan’s process is a re-imagining of beauty and a representation of it in a whole new way.
Since graduating from university in 2004, Rowan’s work has been in various exhibitions and festivals in the UK including the Brixton Urban Art Fair, the Battersea Affordable Art Fair, and the Lowbrow Festival. His work has also shown internationally, from New York to Amsterdam to Shanghai. He has been featured on respected blogs/websites such as Empty Kingdom, Maestro Knows, and Zeutch; and his work has graced the cover of Diplomat Magazine and the pages of the Great Big Book of Fashion Illustration. You can find Cargo, EMI, and Antenna Magazine on his evolving list of clients, for which he has produced a variety of commissioned works including illustrations and murals.