“Since every colour can be shaded with any other colour, an unlimited variation of shading, within every colour scale is possible. Although a red can be, in itself, bluish, greenish, brownish, etc., its actual colour-emanation in the pictorial totality will be the conditioned result of its relationship to all the other colours. Any colour shade within one colour scale can become, at any moment, the bridge to any other colour scale. This leads to an interwoven communion of colour scales over the entire picture surface...”
Hans Hoffmann, 1955

In 1944 the existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre wrote: “... man must create his own essence; it is in throwing himself in to the world, in suffering it, in struggling with it, that – little by little – he defines himself.” Newcombe seems to be approaching this point by reducing structural methodologies and defining a new kind of art by exploring his immediate relationships with colour and composition. At such times, what a painter’s actions can reveal – about them and what they can achieve – can take them by surprise.

Proceeding from an inner necessity, the chronological progression of paintings in this exhibition reveals an increasing engagement with formal concerns. His analytical approach to pictorial structure, spatial dynamics, visual tension and technique has enabled a passionate engagement with his mastery of paint application (dripped, painted or stained), composition and his use – or creation – of colour.

And this is where his strength lies. As the colours push into and pull out of pictorial space, the relationships between them – in terms of scale, shade, proportion, texture, and so on – produces the “interwoven communion of colour scales over the entire picture surface…” that Hoffmann describes in the quote above. Essentially, each canvas contains – or produces – its own lyrical composition. But what is marvellous is that closer inspection reveals how some of this was achieved; in spite of his reduced palette, some of his colours are wonderfully complex; multiple layers of a variety of colours create a superbly deep blue, say, or a rich yellow…

Newcombe’s canvases are not a representation but an extension of his mind, in which he almost ‘thinks’ by changing a surface or colour with his brush. Every brushstroke is integral to the finished work as order is made from chaos.Like an unfinished thought, painting is always in progress for Newcombe. So it will always be his ‘act’ of painting, in the present moment that will define his style.