Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 5

Douglas Newton
Apples and Glass, super real, illustionistic, colorful contemporary still life

2016

About the Item

Oil paint on canvas Doug Newton’s hyper-real paintings observe reality, explore translucency, reflections and luminosity, and dazzle the viewer with all the ways light can transform our perceptions. His subject matter concentrates on still lives of food, toys, candy and household objects. In addition to many group shows across the country, Mr. Newton’s show, “HARD CANDY and other confections” represents his fifth solo exhibition. His paintings have been collected in numerous private collections. Mr. Newton resides in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY. Dr. Sonia Coman writes in her essay, Doug Newton’s hard candy: the confection of painting Doug Newton’s paintings are about… painting. The hyperrealist technique of trompe l’oeil or “trick the eye” is knowingly playful. It simultaneously calls attention to the illusion of a different material—for example, translucent candy wrappers—and the reality of the layers of paint, masterfully applied to the canvas. In that, Newton’s paintings pay homage to an esteemed series of trompe l’oeil masters, from Inquisition-era Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbarán to Gilded-Age American painter William Michael Harnett. But Newton adds something new to the genre. His paintings revel in the effortlessness of their illusionistic effect, celebrating the tension between the abstract quality of a brushstroke and the precise representational image it renders in the viewer’s eye. The reflections we often see on Newton’s canvases heighten this unapologetic presence of multiple materialities—real, perceived, and imagined. Unlike shadows that extend across surfaces, the reflections of Newton’s depicted chocolates and ribbons sink into something resembling a mirror. This murky reflective surface is at odds with the angle and the opacity of the main surface, i.e. the painted canvas itself. The doubling of the depicted objects through these spectral, distorted reflections draws attention to the fact that painting, too, is a (subjective) reflection of some form of reality, be it everyday objects or less palpable things like the artist’s inner world. Newton’s choice of candy and ribbons as privileged subject matter conjures up memories of childhood and notions of play, pleasure, and comfort. However, enlarged and decontextualized, Newton’s candy assumes a different, more serious dimension, inviting the viewer to turn the banal on its head. I find Newton’s paintings of confections akin to group portraits. To me, they provide a meditation on the nature of painting. “Confectionery” comes from the Latin “confectio,” which means “something made by putting together.” That stands true of candy as it does of painting. The effect on the consumer of a good piece of candy, like that of a good painting, is the result of an elaborate, multi-layered process—one that we’re invited to “unwrap” in our minds’ eyes as we enter Doug Newton’s realm of confection as painting.
  • Creator:
    Douglas Newton (1938, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2016
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 14.02 in (35.6 cm)Width: 18 in (45.7 cm)Depth: 0.75 in (1.9 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Brooklyn, NY
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU133915702771

More From This Seller

View All
Violet and Red, bright colors, super realistic wrapped candy
By Douglas Newton
Located in Brooklyn, NY
A still life painting of two cellophane wrapped hard candies, one violet and the other red, backlit on a gray background. This food / childhood themed painting is a study of transpar...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Queen Anne's Lace, grey and blue flower and glass super real still life
By Douglas Newton
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Inspired by some Queen Anne's Lace in our garden and the effects of light on some glassware. I hope the viewer will appreciate the beauty in the most ordinary things. Painted in oil ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Apples, Onions, Blue Bowl, realism, colorful contemporary still life
By Douglas Newton
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Doug Newton says of this work, "Inspired by some red and yellow apples and onions from our local market. The blue bowl was borrowed from my daughter, Rachel. I hope the colors can br...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Doll with Pals, childhood toys, realistic oil painting
By Douglas Newton
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Realist artist Doug Newton says, Inspired by a doll and stuffed animals from my grown daughter's childhood. I enjoy painting the textures and patterns of the stuffed animals and the ...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

One to Three, colorful super real candy oil painting
By Douglas Newton
Located in Brooklyn, NY
One of a series of paintings of candy, or actually of the wrappers. The cellophane provides transparency, reflections and brilliant color which is a...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Onions and Glass Bowl, super realistic oil painting food still life
By Douglas Newton
Located in Brooklyn, NY
A still life painting in oil on canvas of red and yellow onions and onion skins with a glass bowl. Inspired by Spanish still life painting. It is gallery wrapped with clean white sid...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

You May Also Like

Pocket Pale Blue Sloes [2023], Baroque Still Life Painting, Small art, Fruit art
By Dani Humberstone
Located in Deddington, GB
Pocket Pale Blue Sloes is an original oil painting by Dani Humberstone as part of her Pocket Painting series featuring small scale realistic oil paintings, with a nod to baroque stil...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Quadriptych Of Fruits, Pocket Sloes, Strawberry, Wild Apple, Pocket Raspberry
By Dani Humberstone
Located in Deddington, GB
Pocket Crimson Strawberry is an original oil painting by Dani Humberstone as part of her Pocket Painting series featuring small scale realistic oil paintings, with a nod to baroque s...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Golden Hour II" (2024) By Adrienne Stein, Original Oil Landscape Painting
By Adrienne Stein
Located in Denver, CO
Adrienne Stein's (US based) "Golden Hour II" (2022) is an original, handmade oil painting. About the artist: Adrienne Stein (b. 1986) is an award winning artist living and working ...
Category

2010s Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Two Turquoise, Silver, White and Gold Cups Stacked"
By Olga Antonova
Located in Wellesley, MA
Olga Antonova "Two Turquoise, White and Silver Cups Stacked" Oil on Canvas 12 x 12 Inches Olga Antonova’s subject is compositions of extraordinarily elegant, beautiful and whimsical cups, plates, teapots, vases and dishes, but there is something playful about these paintings. Stacked teacups are also amusing, having a kind of jaunty and upbeat personality of their own. Polka dots are as endearing to adults as to children, and everyone responds to the bling and sparkle of gold and silver while marveling at Antonova’s seemingly effortless ability to paint these radiant details...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Spring Collection: Pocket Daffodil [2024], Baroque Still Life, flower
By Dani Humberstone
Located in Deddington, GB
Spring Collection: Pocket Daffodil is an original oil painting by Dani Humberstone as part of her Pocket Painting series featuring small scale realistic oil paintings, with a nod to ...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Bottles. 2012, canvas, oil, 115x115 cm
Located in Riga, LV
Bottles. 2012, canvas, oil, 115x115 cm Alyona Prokofyeva (1988) From 2016 surname Galaktionova. Alyona graduated Riga art school, Latvian University, receiving a visual arts teache...
Category

2010s Realist Still-life Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All