Greg Newbold is a fine art painter and illustrator based near Salt Lake City, Utah. Greg says that for him, “art is a soulful expression.” His hope is that a piece of him comes out at the end of his brush onto the surface of a painting and connects with the spirit of the viewer.
Greg’s compelling visions of the American West are distilled through the filter of his own life experiences. Building upon that, he applies his own unique creative filters of simplification, light, color, shape, and texture. This creative alchemy results in paintings that feature bold composition, strong value structure, sensitive color, and intriguing narrative.
Greg’s evocative, contemporary paintings are eagerly desired by collectors from around the globe. Greg characterizes his approach to painting as Stylized Realism. Greg explains how his experience as an illustrator helped him develop a diverse vocabulary that he can draw upon for his oil paintings. He explains that doing the hard work of putting in the brush mileage he put into his illustrations and paintings allowed his unique voice to appear naturally.
Greg gained valuable insights into how many famous artists worked as he developed the illustrations in a series of children's books authored by his wife, Amy. The first of these books is titled, If Picasso Painter a Snowman. That successful volume was followed up by, If da Vinci Painted a Dinosaur, which includes a recreation of Coolidge’s famous Dogs Playing Poker painting reimagined as Dinosaurs Playing Poker. For each book, Greg did a deep dive into the methods of famous artists so that he could create the whimsical paintings used in each book. Greg is comfortable with both traditional and digital techniques. He embraces the use of technology where it makes sense to do so in his art.
Greg and his wife Amy are also active in encouraging youth in schools with their delightful lectures about art and art-making. Greg loves to award each student with their own copy of a Creative License. The students are encouraged to express themselves and create art in their own voice, in their own way. No one can tell them they have to do it just one way because now they have their own Creative License. Personally, I think no matter how young or old we are, we can all use Greg’s Creative License!
