Note Type
Antony Hayton, Exhibit DirectorNote
Harold Newton (1934-1994)
Oil on Upson Board circa mid-1960s
Down That Lazy River
Image size 24" X 36"
To think that these artists created these scenes from memory makes their work even more intriguing. This particular painting features a lot of palette knife work and has a very impressionistic feel. To think that Newton could knock off a few of these paintings in a day seems incredible. Paint would be applied continuously, wet paint merging with wet paint on the board, a process known as "alla prima" an Italian phrase. The alla prima technique is popular among plein air artists (outdoors artists).
Both Newton and Hair borrowed from traditional alla prima, a wet-on-wet method, to work up a shorthand of strokes and shapes to make several paintings quickly and sell them cheaply. As American landscapes the Highwaymen could be compared to the Hudson River School, in praise of natural beauty, presenting an emotive vista. Such works as these take us to a hidden world of Florida that few of us see today. Thankfully the Highwaymen have preserved a legacy of Florida that is harder and harder to find.
Harold Newton at his impressionistic best. An early painting by him was almost completely done by palette knife. In later years he would employ the use of brushes more. The painting depicts an early winding backwater scene of undisturbed Florida. Paintings such as this are in high demand by collectors. They epitomize Harold, the master Highwaymen artist at his best.