Michael Newberry (b. 1956) is an American neo-romantic figurative painter residing in Idyllwild, California. His work integrates passion, intellect, and visual perception. Influenced by Rembrandt, Van Gogh, and contemporary sculptor Martine Vaugel. His major works are typically life-sized canvases. Newberry has exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Rome, Athens, and Brussels. [1]
Newberry began painting at age 11 and sold his first work at 17. He studied fine arts at the University of Southern California from 1974 to 1977 and furthered his education at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Free Academy Psychopolis in The Hague. [2]
He taught figure drawing, composition, and painting at the Otis/Parsons Institute in Los Angeles from 1990 to 1994. [3]
He created and organized the Foundation for the Advancement of Art, which held a conference "Innovation, Substance, Vision: The Future of Art" at the Pierre Hotel in Manhattan on October 6, 2003, featuring speakers: philosophers Stephen Hicks and David Kelley, vision scientist Jan Koenderick, and sculptor Martine Vaugel. The mission of the Foundation was to recognize and promote innovative, contemporary representational painters and sculptors. [4] [5]
In a 2025 clip from his presentation Philosophy for Real Life, philosopher Stephen Hicks stated:
“I would say my favorite living painter is an artist named Michael Newberry. He is a contemporary painter based out of California, and I’ve been following his career and how he’s developed… What I get from viewing his work is a sense that here is someone who loves the world and loves human beings. He is very skilled at choosing things that I like to look at and spend time with—sometimes a minute, sometimes two minutes, however long I’m looking at a given painting.”