Artist and Aesthetic Activist
A little sketch of Rembrandt’s portrait of his son at the Norton Simon museum. I drew it standing in a throng of people with sketchbook in my left hand and pen in my right. I think the wobbliness is cool!
Newberry, Saunders Meadow in Idyllwild, pastel Late in 2017 I had a show at the White Cloud Gallery in Washington, D.C. The experience was bracketed by driving the works across the US to the show and then on the way back I drew pastel landscapes. This one was after I arrived home in Idyllwild — …
Since falling in love with Rembrandt’s magic at the age of 11, I have been on life-long quest for perceptual, emotional, and intellectual discoveries. Implementing these discoveries as I work on my drawings and paintings, I am at the same time, asking myself, while painting, “What exactly am I doing?” in order to understand these …
Join us on August 26th @ 12 Noon PT / 3 PM ET for The Atlas Society Asks Michael Newberry and Stephen Hicks. Michael Newberry is an American neo-romanticist painter based in Idyllwild, California. He blends a variety of influences, notably Rembrandt and the French Impressionists. The Atlas Society Senior Scholar Dr. Stephen Hicks is …
I grew up on the beach in La Jolla, California, without religion, but with freedom. Never did homework, hated the obligation of going to school, only had two teachers I liked, respectively in art and geometry. The most important influence was Rembrandt, just love the guy, discovered him when I was 11 and painted/drew everyday …
Excerpt from my upcoming book: Evolution Through Art by Michael Newberry The Spanish Inquisition VELAZQUEZ The artist Diego Velazquez (b. 1599–d. 1660) and Rembrandt van Rijn were contemporaries and the greatest painters of their respective countries, Catholic Spain and Protestant Netherlands. Likely they never saw each other’s works, yet they had many similarities in their …
Yay I finished writing Chapter 2 The Nude From Part Two Psychological Power Plays. It’s the climax of the book’s setup. Such a great honor to write about Rembrandt and Michelangelo, I’m pretty sure there are a few new insights about them. So much respect and gratitude to them. The complete draft is at 100 …
It has been a great pleasure to work with these artists. The dilemma for a professional painter is where to hang other artists’ works. It can be confusing when I collector walks into your studio and there are works from other artists. It kind of puts the collector on the spot, they don’t want to …
“Lynia” is my first and so far only sculpture. It is dated circa 1978 maybe 1979, I would have only been 22 or 23 years old. I sculpted it at the Free Academy Psychopolis in The Hague, Holland. It was a marvelous school, no teachers! They had models everyday, all day, and they had facilities for printmaking, sculpture, and life drawing sessions. I did this as an exploration to see if I could do it. Even today, I think “wow, this is really good look at that ear!” Even more remarkable is I was never taught figure in drawing, painting, or sculpture–my 3 years of fine art at USC, didn’t teach the figure. They just left us to our own devices and played with postmodernism.
30,000 years before there was religion, before there was writing, and 33,000 years before philosophy there was visual art—the first and most important step in humankind’s evolution. With the pull and roots so deep anyone touched with the art gift feels a calling that only death can extinguish. It is a sacred calling holding the weight of humanity’s wellbeing and hope.
