Newberry, San Onofre Blue-Violet
"Art Improves on Nature" Susan Dawn Wake
Signed today. The color theory driving the edits in this pastel was a blue-violet atmosphere, with a cool light and warm saturated shadows. Sometimes in shallow water and bright light the color of the sand below can be magnified in the shadows of the waves, creating yellowy orange darks. The main center wave's shadow as a bright color that is between a lemon and orange, the next lower wave has an orange shadow, and then the 3rd, closer to us has scarlet orange, and the dark line, the closest to us, is rust orange. These shadows become hotter color the closer they get; a great foil to intense blue background -- that also stretches the space.
A friend and collector, Susan Dawn Wake, yesterday commented about this pastel series: "Michael Newberry’s work has ‘ruined’ photos like this. [referring to an idyllic tropical seascape photograph] I see it and think: wow, I bet this would look fabulous as one of his pastels. Compared to that imagined ideal, reality seems flat and one dimensional. Amazing how art improves on nature."
Her comment made me very happy.
Michael Newberry, Idyllwild, 11/9/2020