Featured Artist Douglas Newton

Douglas Newton captures the translucency of light through an object as well as the contrasts between light and shadow in his still lifes. Enjoy his portfolio and learn more about him by visiting his website.

 

 

I’m an artist living and working in Brooklyn, New York. I paint in oils and I’m inspired by the hidden beauty in everything around us. Light and shadow, rich colors and complex textures inspire me to start a painting. I work directly from life without using photographs. The blue glasses in Blue Glasses and Butterscotch created a symphony of blues when backlit. The yellows of the butterscotch candies were the perfect contrast to the blues.

 

 

Yellow and Blue is another variation on the yellow and blue theme. The light coming through the translucent feathers inspired me to start painting. It’s one of a series of paintings of feathers, both dyed and natural.

 

 

The paintings of marble eggs are a tribute to my mother who collected them. I loved painting the patterns and the internal glow from their translucency.

 

 

I looked at them for years, and just recently thought of painting them.

 

 

Translucency is a big part of my paintings of colored tissue paper such as Cerise and Citrine.

 

 

Some of the tissue paper paintings are nearly abstract like Triadic.

 

 

In contrast, Fuchsia and Violet is recognizable,  but still creates a strong abstract pattern. All the tissue paper paintings are about the color and the unexpected patterns that happen when light passes through the paper or is reflected off of the surface.

 

 

Last are a series of paintings of candy or really of their foil and cellophane wrappers. Paintings of candy started me in this direction of capturing light and translucency. Three Almond Kisses finds the beauty in the candy of our childhood.

 

 

Star is a closeup of a green candy star surrounded by orange gum drops. I could have never invented such a complex maze of colors and reflections. It had to be discovered, by closely examining the strangeness in ordinary things.

 

 

The photo of my easel and glass palette shows a painting in progress: Dark Kisses, of some Hershey dark chocolate Kisses. Happily, the painting is now in a collection.

 

 

I have been painting full time for fifteen years, after a career as an advertising art director and painting part time. I sell my work mostly on my own and occasionally through galleries in New York City.

 

 

Actually, I’ve been drawing and painting all my life. My website also shows a long series of food still lifes, plus other paintings of toys and household objects, figure drawings plus an earlier group of imaginary surrealistic landscapes.

I hope you enjoy looking at my work.

 

Artist Douglas Newton invites you to follow him on Instagram.

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