{"id":42369,"date":"2016-01-06T15:07:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-06T22:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?p=42369"},"modified":"2016-04-02T14:20:32","modified_gmt":"2016-04-02T21:20:32","slug":"from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/01\/06\/from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island\/","title":{"rendered":"From a Greek island to a sky island"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Michael
Michael Newberry\u2019s paintings dance with light, using it as a character and narrator in his pieces, as it does in this, \u201cThe Sculptor.\u201d
Photo courtesy of Michael Newberry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There has been one constant in Michael Newberry\u2019s peripatetic life \u2014 painting. He mounted his first exhibition when he was 18 and has since exhibited internationally \u2014 in Greece, Belgium, Italy and Holland, and throughout the U.S. He has taught at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and writes about art in a way that non-aficionados can easily understand and appreciate.<\/p>\n

Newberry lived and painted for eight years on the Greek Island of Rhodes and now, by chance and Craig\u2019s List, lives and paints in the sky island of Idyllwild.<\/p>\n

As a student, Newberry left the University of Southern California when he was 20 to study at the Free Academy Psychopolis and the Royal Academy in Holland because of the availability of live models. \u201cI was a fine-arts major at USC but they only offered two weeks of figure drawing. In Holland they had great studios, great natural light and live figures. It was mostly figure drawing of live models, nine hours a day, six days a week,\u201d said Newberry. \u201cWith that kind of intensity every week you make great leaps. I\u2019ve painted since I was 17 and known that was what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is another constant throughout Newberry\u2019s life as a painter. He finds the light. Light is a character, an actor and a narrator in his pieces. He began and continues in a classical tradition of painting figures \u2014 people with stories, imbued with an inherent romanticism. And his paintings assure the viewer that, at least within Newberry\u2019s world, there is no imminent apocalypse. He said he paints the kinds of themes with which he would want to spend significant amounts of time, not subjects that are dark and angry. \u201cLet\u2019s say I\u2019m feeling angry and frustrated,\u201d he explained. \u201cMaybe I feel I want to do a satire of stupid people. I\u2019ll do sketches and then I\u2019ll realize, \u2018Is that where I want to go, in that state of being? Do I want to spend my time with those people?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To illustrate his point, he referred to the last words of Steve Jobs, remembered by Job\u2019s sister Monica Simpson in her eulogy of her brother \u2014 \u201cOh wow, oh wow, oh wow.\u201d It is that \u201czone\u201d within which he has chosen to live and paint. \u201cI\u2019ve known from day one that I wanted to spend my life in \u2018the zone,\u2019\u201d said Newberry. \u201cThe things I try are exciting and that puts me in the zone. I focus on an idea that\u2019s meaningful to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He remembered that when he was young, just starting out as an artist, he questioned his calling. \u201cMy biggest conflict with art then was that I did not understand its value to humanity,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew I enjoyed drawing and painting but I wondered, \u2018What was the point?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Painter
Painter Michael Newberry, recently of Rhodes, Greece and now ensconced in his Idyllwild studio in Fern Valley, talks about his five decade painting career.
Photo by Marshall Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Asked now to explain why he paints, Newberry said, \u201cMy goal in life has been to show what I think is meaningful and make a contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newberry said he is the kind of person who takes it slow. \u201cI wanted to have a profession that allowed me to contemplate,\u201d he said. He changed locations, living in New York City after Holland. \u201cYou go [to New York] with the idea you\u2019ll break through,\u201d he said. He went back and forth between New York and Los Angeles, painting and exhibiting. \u201cThen, after selling a number of paintings that gave me the opportunity to live anywhere, I went to Greece. I had been\u00a0there previously, painting in pastels for three months. This time I moved to Rhodes and remained for eight years.\u201d Newberry said Rhodes gave him the time for contemplation he had sought and, with the pace of life, he was definitely able to take it slow. \u201cIn small places, people get to know you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After Rhodes, he moved to the downtown Los Angeles arts district. \u201cI had a high ceiling, 2,000-square-foot live-work space. But it was noisy and they wanted to raise my rent. I didn\u2019t want to sacrifice my art just to make my rent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newberry went online, typed in \u201ccabin\u201d on Craig\u2019s List and found his present studio in Idyllwild. He has been here for more than two years and is only now reaching out to the larger community. \u201cI like living alone too much,\u201d he confided. \u201cIdyllwild reminds me of Rhodes; the quiet, the pace of life. But what I find here is how amazing are the depths of thinking and feeling of the people I am meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always been interested in the sublime in art, what elevates the human spirit \u2014 something that states, \u2018Isn\u2019t it magnificent that I can be here, feeling love, connection and celebrating existence?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

His paintings offer a definitive answer and the answer is a resounding \u201cyes.\u201d \u201cI believe that art exists to evolve our minds, to extend our awareness and to expand our hearts,\u201d said Newberry.<\/p>\n

For more about Michael Newberry, to view his paintings and to read his archived articles about art, visit www.michaelnewberry.com. His gallery in Fern Valley is open to the public<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been one constant in Michael Newberry\u2019s peripatetic life \u2014 painting. He mounted his first exhibition when he was 18 and has since exhibited internationally \u2014 in Greece, Belgium, Italy and Holland, and throughout the U.S. He has taught at the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and writes about art […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"amp_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,791,19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFrom a Greek island to a sky island • Idyllwild Town Crier<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/01\/06\/from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/\",\"name\":\"Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"description\":\"Almost All the News \\u2014\\u00a0Part of the Time\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/01\/06\/from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island\/#primaryimage\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/artist2-500x768.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/01\/06\/from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/01\/06\/from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island\/\",\"name\":\"From a Greek island to a sky island • Idyllwild Town Crier\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/01\/06\/from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-06T22:07:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-04-02T21:20:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/2016\/01\/06\/from-a-greek-island-to-a-sky-island\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#\/schema\/person\/800eebb80d1e5e36859dc6c5cb500784\",\"name\":\"Marshall Smith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/6f832ebbb90c77ae40e932b1b868a8db?s=96&d=retro&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Marshall Smith\"},\"description\":\"Marshall Smith has been writing for the Town Crier since 2005. His favorite quote is: '\\\"Some men see things as they are, and ask why. I dream of things that never were, and ask why not.\\\" Robert Kennedy quoting George Bernard Shaw\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42369"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42380,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42369\/revisions\/42380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idyllwildtowncrier.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}