Ruth Newquist’s Lifelong Journey Continues

With An Exhibition That Opens This Weekend

By Shannon Hicks

Ruth Newquist prefers to participate in a number of gallery exhibitions during the course of each year, but likes to mount just one major one-artist exhibition annually. Regional art lovers are in for a treat for the new year when they visit C.H. Booth Library during the next six weeks, as Mrs Newquist has decided to present “Cityscapes & Landscapes: Oils and Watercolors by Ruth Newquist” on the library’s main floor beginning this weekend.

The public is invited to an opening reception on Saturday, January 10, between 2 and 4 pm. The exhibition will remain on view until February 9 and can be seen any time the library is open. Mrs Newquist was going to be hanging the show this week and plans to have nearly 40 works on view. Among those paintings will be a familiar barn on Boggs Hill Road and some Main Street scenes including The Budd House and Trinity Episcopal Church.

As the name of her new exhibition implies, Mrs Newquist also enjoys capturing the vibrancy of New York City on canvas as well as the beauty of the rural area that surrounds her home. Locations within Newtown as well as surrounding towns offer inspiration year-round.

Mrs Newquist captures the vibrancy of New York City on canvas. Her figures, skyscrapers, and sidewalks all light the way to a personal glimpse of the city. In her rural landscapes, Mrs Newquist also captures the unique beauty of the moment as the light falls on barns, houses, and subjects unique to the rolling countryside and the season.

Three years ago she began her SoHo scenes, and recently has expanded that into scenes of Madison Avenue. She expects to show some of the Madison Avenue images in SCAN’s Annual Juried Show coming up in May.

Sunlight –– regardless of rural or city views –– has always been of first importance. For her cityscapes Mrs Newquist first began to have the figures be the prominent part of her paintings, but says she threw that idea aside “in preference to having them participating in the energy of the city rather than being the subject.” For this reason the majority of the figures in her paintings are looking away from the viewer rather than straight-on.

Before she begins many of her paintings Mrs Newquist visits SoHo and takes photos of the areas in which she is interested. She looks for figures in action, whether walking, talking, or even window shopping, so that they seem to be more involved in each scene.

“They become part of a moment in time in the life of the city,” she wrote in a statement she titled “Urban Energy.” “It is the people, sometimes dressed in outrageous outfits, that give the city its energy.”

Next she develops her film into slides rather than prints because, she told American Artist in 1999, “the color in a slide is better and there is more detail, especially in the dark areas.”

From the slides Mrs Newquist then begins very detailed drawings onto her canvas. The painting is done in stages, resulting in very colorful images of the streets, sidewalks, and people that make up what is probably Mrs Newquist’s favorite city.

“The overall color of each painting is important to me,” continued her artist’s statement. “I enhance the actual colors to give the city a light-hearted look. Many painters give the city a dreary look with somber colors.

“I do not feel that way about the city so I use color, especially warm colors, to achieve a heightened mood.”

Her rural landscapes are done primarily en plein air.

“I’ve always enjoyed working outside,” Mrs Newquist said this week.

At her home –– which she shares with a very playful cat, Taffy, who Mrs Newquist adopted just a few years ago –– Mrs Newquist had two studios set up. One is where she works on the watercolors that have come to be her most recognizable work, and the second, adjoining room, is where she has her easel and palette set up for working in oil. The second studio was formerly the working space for her late husband, Larry Newquist, a fellow artist and the founder of one of Newtown’s longest running artists’ organizations, The Society for Creative Arts of Newtown (SCAN), Inc.

The presentation of oils and watercolors in “Cityscapes & Landscapes” presents not only the two areas Mrs Newquist prefers to reproduce on canvas, it also displays her talents in watercolor and oil. After working for so long in watercolors, Mrs Newquist has moved back into oils for her most recent works. This is leading into a personal dilemma: Try to balance the two mediums, stay with oil, or return to watercolor?

“It’s really a dilemma,” she said. “What am I going to do now? I’ve thought about this a lot and have talked with some friends about it, but their answers are very similar: I have to decide for myself.”

Mrs Newquist’s worry is that “every time an artist breaks their rhythm,” she explained, “you begin to question what you’re doing. It’s also difficult to paint before a show. You can’t paint while you’re preparing for an exhibition.

“There’s a lot of time spent retrieving your work after a show, too,” she added. Mrs Newquist takes care of transporting her paintings herself when she participates in group or solo exhibitions. During the last two years alone that has meant getting works to and from The Salmagundi Club Fall Auction Exhibition and the Regional Hospice Art Festival of Western Connecticut, both in 2003; and American Artists Professional League and Salmagundi Club’s Annual Members’ Exhibition, both in New York City.

A full-time artist, Mrs Newquist looks forward to the first half of the year. “Now through May is an especially good time,” she says.

Painting has been a lifelong journey for Mrs Newquist, who says it was a childhood inspiration for a love of art that led to her decision to attend Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, where she earned her fine arts degree. She also attended Art Students League in New York City for one year, and has studied under such distinguished artists as Randolph Bye, Reginald Marsh, and Frank Reilly.

Mrs Newquist received her master of science in art education from Southern Connecticut State University. Mrs Newquist then taught for 25 years, 22 of those years at New Fairfield High School and the other three in Berlin (Conn.). She worked on getting in art organizations while teaching, and retired about seven years ago.

Today Mrs Newquist is a signature member of the National Watercolor Society and an artist member of The Salmagundi Club, an elected artist member of Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club, and a member of Hudson Valley Art Association and North Shore Art Association (Gloucester, Mass.). She is a fellow in the American Artist Professional League.

Mrs Newquist’s work was featured in a six-page spread on the Watercolor Pages of the June 1999 issue of American Artist Magazine. She is also represented in Best of Watercolor III in 1999 (Rockport Publishers).

Last spring one of Mrs Newquist’s watercolors, “Cruise Night (Sycamore Diner, Bethel, CT),” was turned into a limited edition 15- by 21-inch lithograph print by Puddingstone Publishing, LLC, based in Weston. A few years earlier, her watercolors of Newtown General Store and Newtown Meeting House was also turned into popular prints.

Mrs Newquist’s paintings have been exhibited throughout New York and New England, and she has won more than 20 awards in national juried art shows. In the past two years alone she has won major awards while being represented in equally important shows.

In October 2003, Mrs Newquist was one of three Newtown artists selected for inclusion in North East Watercolor Society’s (NEWS) 27th Annual International Exhibition. Works by 109 artists –– including Mrs Newquist, Betty Christensen, and Carol Reilley –– were featured in the NEWS International Exhibition of watercolor at the gallery of Kent Art Association.

(Mrs Newquist received signature artist membership status in NEWS in 1997.)

The exhibition of many of the world’s finest watercolor artists included paintings by artists from as far away as Singapore and Malaysia and artists from 28 states and Canada.

In November 2002 The American Artists Professional League (AAPL), a leading organization dedicated to recognizing, encouraging, and promoting traditional, representational art, announced its 74th Grand National Exhibition Award Winners. Mrs Newquist was honored with The Raymond G. Schryver Memorial Award for her painting “Contrast.”

In January 2002 she was awarded The Thomas C. Picard Award for an oil at the 2002 Salmagundi Club Annual Members’ Exhibition on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Mrs Newquist’s painting, “Welcome,” of a local subject, was done on location, or en plein air.

To see additional examples of work, visit www.RuthNewquist.com.