Name/Title
Richard Newman - Socially Distanced - Open StudioDescription
I am a semi-retired administrative law judge living and working in San Francisco. In addition to my legal career, I have had a lifelong passion for learning about and creating art. I began sketching and cartooning when I was very young, and in later years I became more interested in painting. I haven’t had much formal training, but a few classes over the years have helped hone my skills. I am inspired by artists whose work contains a hint of mystery or ambiguity, such as Paul Klee, August Macke, Richard Diebenkorn and Edward Hopper. I especially like works, including many by Hopper, that depict a certain narrative with respect to the figures or settings depicted. There is a sense in these works that something significant has just happened or is about to happen, and I try to incorporate this sense of tension in my own work. I often start from photos or copies of paintings by other artists, but my imagination eventually takes over and– this is the intriguing part of the process for me–I’m never sure what will ultimately emerge.
