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Student Works During Quarantine

sonia leatarde girl with doll oil painting

Very proud of my students, these works were done independently of me. They took what they had been learning and applied it on their own, self-motivated, and, in my mind, very successfully. Sonia painted the two girls from masterworks from the Prado, but they are free transcriptions. We've been working with color theory and forming the structure of the face. Sonia's recent lessons with me was to freely copy some classic sculpture heads to learn form. The roundness in her children's faces is superb. And they look like children, one of the most difficult things to do in art.

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Update on Evolution Through Art

Akhenaten, I will be writing about him and Thutmose in my book, Newberry: Evolution Through Art

The early artist would have been shifting valuable efforts away from life-sustaining work towards the abstract pursuit of art. All animals engage in life-sustaining action, but it would appear as if the artist was rejecting this. Visual art, then as now, has no utilitarian purpose, none whatsoever. Art could not mend things, carve arrows, and build fires. It was not a tool. It did not give warmth, shelter, food, or security. In practical terms it was useless. Diverting resources for such an senseless art adventure would be perceived as a psychosis, the artist having a partial or total break with reality.

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The Newberry Idyllwild Studio

Newberry Studio in Idyllwild, California

New pics of my studio in Idyllwild. Happy to find the balance between order and chaos for my mountain high sanctuary. This week I opened up everything instead of trying to control the natural light or privacy. Interestingly enough the two 85 watt special lights that shine 5,500 k, as bright as overcast daylight, enabled great conditions to paint by

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Did Thutmose Sculpt the Mask of Tutankhamen?

Portrait Study Of AmenhotepIII-Thutmose Workshop_Egyptian MuseumBerlin

I was struck by the similarities of this sculpture of Tutankhamen's grandfather, Amenhotep III and the famous Gold Mask of Tutankhamen. But I am wondering if the portrait study is not Amenhotep III but a life study of Tutankhamen?

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Where No Mind Had Gone Before

Evolution Through Art by Michael Newberry

For the artists that didn't turn away they would have to cope with, defend, and manage resentment. For their art they would breath deep, fortify themselves, and let go of certainty and control and dive into a vast alternative universe; exploring where no mind had gone before.

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A Little Greek Pastel Painting Trip by Michael Newberry

newberry-next-door-1988-pastel-on-paper-18x24

Years ago I took a pastel painting trip of a lifetime, for three months I traveled from Athens, Greece to many islands, eventually to Istanbul, and slowly back again to Athens. My first island was Tinos, from the harbor I rented a scooter, booked a tiny house outside of town for 15 dollars a night. The porch had a sloping view over gray-green olive groves down to the dark and brilliant ultramarine blue Mediterranean, about 300 ft to the left was a small, room-sized luminous white-plastered Byzantine church.