Divining the Human

- Blurb -

Spanning the worlds of Portraiture, Landscape, The Nude, Abstraction and Still Life, Alexander Newley' s project fuses the Fine Art traditions of patient observation and draughtsmanship with the transcendental intuitions of the mystic. ' For me, art is a moral activity,' he says, ' a straining after the highest virtue of beauty and enlarged consciousness. As such, all art is essentially religious, even when it shows us the ugliness of a fallen world. ' No contemporary portraitist has more completely captured the inner life of his subjects-or told us more about the fascinating intersection of the observable and invisible worlds. Whether his subject is a city street, a painter' s table, a child' s face, or a matrix of abstract forms, there is a unifying and revelatory logic to his perception that is unique. Complementing the images is Newley' s personal reminiscence, placing each work in a fascinating narrative of self-becoming-and an often-dogged determination to stay true to his calling. The result is a unique account of an artist' s journey in his own words, firmly setting before us a body of work that continues to evolve and explore, always affirming a uniquely ' human' future.