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| Path Along the Susquehanna Vestal, New York Painted by Richard Newton, ©The Estate of R.A. Newton, 1970 |
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| Underground Railroad Stop, Pumpelly Mansion Apalachin, New York painted by Richard Newton, ©The Estate of R.A. Newton, 1975 |
My father was a perfectionist. His artistic career began as a boy when his mother sent him for art lessons. After his discharge from the Air Force, he attended Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. I don't remember seeing any of his work when I was a young child. My mother said he had taken a large number of canvases to the plumber's next door to our home in Stroudsburg, PA and had them incinerated because he didn't feel they were good enough to be shown.
As I grew up, I noticed he would sometimes spend hours in one spot, waiting for sunlight and shadow to cast just right for photographs of an area he would later paint. Among his favorite artists was Claude Monet, and I remember his coffee table book of prints of his Water Garden and Japanese Footbridge at Giverny.
I loved my Dad's French Impressionist period best of all . . . most likely because of the nostalgia of the scenes. These three paintings hang in my home . . . three places I shared with Dad.
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| Adirondack Mountains, New York Painted by Richard Newton, ©The Estate of R.A. Newton, 1981 |
I think my favorite period in Dad's career was his final period, of which I have none. With the exception of a few which were sold, and two which hang in their church, my Mom holds this final collection.
