A NEWPORT artist has published a book highlighting some of the fantastic architecture which can be seen if you look closely at the buildings in the city.
Justin Brown, who has lived in Newport since 1969, spent most of his career working as a perspective artist for architects in Newport and Cardiff, before being made redundant in 2019 when his employer went into liquidation.
His book, Devils in the Details concentrates on what he describes as "the striking and, until recently, much neglected" Victorian/Edwardian architecture in the city."
In the book he features his pictures of street scenes from around the city, punctuated with some of the details of the buildings which people may not spot as they hurry by.
Mr Brown said: "While job searching I started going out painting from life occasionally, just because I could. When the pandemic started I stopped job searching, and started painting constantly. Always from life, in watercolour, and always in the local area at locations I could reach on my cycle.
On Charles Street. This is the picture which started Justin Brown's project to highlight the small details
"I have had a compulsion to paint places in Newport for a long time.
"I think it may have been triggered by the Terry Underwood books of old photos which came out at the very end of the 70s and early 80s, and I had done several paintings and drawings of scenes and buildings in Newport dating from the early 80s to the present.
These are on the building on the corner of East Usk Road and Clarence Place which dates from 1927
"I had many more ideas about what I wanted to paint which I had not had the time to explore until 2020. I had in my mind the sort of pictures produced by an artist called Falcon Hildred, who did a number of paintings and drawings focusing on Newport as a traditional industrial town, and on the Transporter Bridge.
"However when I was painting in 2020 I discovered that the 'industrial' landscape of Newport which I remembered hardly exists any more, so I painted what I can see now instead."
Mr Brown said: "I had painted many examples from life during 2021, and I supplemented these by photographing some of the characteristic details and making illustrative paintings from these.
This is from a row of shops next to the market on Upper Dock Street
"I tend to chat to a lot of people while I am painting outside, and so many talked about appreciating this aspect of their town I thought I would make it a small project to illustrate it. I find that the townscape of this period is an important part of people's sense of Newport's identity as a place."
He said his favourite building in Newport is the Waterloo Hotel in Pill.
He said: "It has so much inside and out. It's such a landmark, and has a fairly colourful history."
Justin Brown sketching in Pill. Picture: Elvisfong
Favorite Structure of course must be the Transporter, which I have painted many times, - often the with the Waterloo as part of the scene too.
Mr Brown is planning an exhibition at some point this year at the 'Cwtch', previously the library near the Handpost on Risca Road.
For more information and details on where you can get a copy of the book go to newportartistsjb.com
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