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Barbara Benedetti Newton,
"Dream Maker"

Barbara Benedetti Newton, born 1943 in Puyallup, Washington, attended public school in Auburn, cosmetology school in Renton, and Burnley School of Professional Art (now renamed Art Institute of Seattle) where she studied with William Cumming among others.

In 1965, Newton began her professional art career as a fashion illustrator for a major Seattle department store. Married the same year to artist William Iles, they relocated to San Francisco where Barbara continued to work as a freelance fashion illustrator. After returning to the Seattle area, they purchased a filbert farm with 1902 farmhouse on Vashon Island.

For Barbara, a 20-year hiatus from art followed. Her creative energy was used to raise their son and daughter, grow cut flowers for resale, develop a flock of wool breed sheep and work at nearby K2 Ski Corporation. She began work in the K2 factory then quickly moved on to Master Scheduler of Production and later, Buyer.

In 1990, after several life-changing events and with the support of her second and final husband, Jay Newton, Barbara left K2 after 16 years to return full time to art. The humble colored pencil became her path back and her introduction to color. Working exclusively in colored pencil for more than a dozen years, Newton became one of the masters of the medium and co-authored Colored Pencil Solution Book, published in 2000. A valued instructor at Frye Art Museum in Seattle and at Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Oregon for more than a dozen years, Newton retired from teaching in 2006.Her work has been included in American Artist, International Artist, and The Artist’s Magazine, as well as numerous other publications.

In 2002 Newton began exploring other mediums and has been working primarily in soft pastel since then. Making the transition from a precise, time-consuming, transparent medium to spontaneous, fast-paced, opaque soft pastel has been a journey of discovery. With a change of medium, Newton also departed from her trademark light-filled still life subjects to impressionistic landscape scenes.

She is a Charter Member, Signature Member, past president and 10 Year Merit Member of Colored Pencil Society of America; Signature Member of the Northwest Pastel Society; a juried member of Women Painters of Washington and a member of the Eastside Association of Fine Arts, Pastel Society of the West Coast and the Pastel Society of America.

Newton is represented by American Art Company, Tacoma, WA; Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Seattle, WA; State of the Arts Gallery, Olympia, WA; and The Attic Gallery, Portland, OR.

 


Editorial
by Barbara Benedetti Newton
August, 2011


These August mornings are beginning to feel like Fall. Summer activities are winding down and it is time for me to get back into the studio. I have a stack of spring painting “sandwiches” waiting to be framed so they are first on the agenda.

Sandwiches are the complete painting package that will be slipped into a frame. The top layer is 1/16” standard glass. I order glass by the case in 16x20, 20x24, 24x30 and 26 x 32 inch sizes.

I love a square format painting so most times I have to cut the glass to another size.

The next layer is an archival off-white rag mat, then archival foam core spacers to hold the painting away from the glass and mat. When I mount the foam core spacers to the mat with half-inch ATG tape, I leave a channel between spacers to trap any excess pastel dust, keeping it off the mat and off the glass.
I paint the edges of the spacers with black acrylic paint. This is to ensure the edges of the spacers won’t show (white) when viewing the painting from the front. It would be a good idea to buy black foam core to eliminate this step. The bottom layer is the painting mounted on archival foam core. This completed sandwich is one-half inch deep so I select a frame with a deep enough rabbet to accommodate this thickness.


The frames I use most often are a simple walnut wood frame purchased from Jayeness Moulding. The order number is RD8224 Walnut. I order my frames joined.

Before the sandwich is placed into the frame, I attach the hanger for the wire. Then, I put the sandwich in the frame and secure it with framer’s points about every 3” all the way around.


I use coated wire, felt bumpers, and two-inch brown tape to seal the back. Add the painting label and I’m done! Making a painting sandwich as each painting is completed is a good way to protect a painting until it is framed. However, I am trying to move away from using mat at all and go to a wider, plein air type frame. I think the smaller a painting is, the more it needs a mat to set it off so the first step for me will be to increase the size of my paintings.