Ricardo Newton was born, lives and works in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. His training and development as a painter has been based on studying the techniques of those artists whose works made their mark during the period from the Renaissance to Impressionism. In his own works, Newton has used this knowledge when representing contemporary scenes involving various themes. And here Newton has incorporated elements derived from other forms of artistic expression, including the theatre and the cinema, from which he has taken several bases, such as set designs, illumination, composition and colour. His preferred technique are oil paintings on canvas, which is how he created those works which have been reproduced in the “Paintings Gallery”. This artist is a permanent member of the teaching staff of the School of Fine Arts of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), has presented various individual exhibitions and taken part in innumerous colective presentations.
The teacher and art critic, Angela Ancora da Luz has written the following on Newton´s work:
“ Ricardo Newton´s manner of portraying urban scenes is completely personal. It differs from the realists and yet is part of them, concentrating on the everyday life of the city of Rio de Janeiro” (...).(...) “ however Ricardo Newton does not register these scenes in the same way as he realists. Rather, his paintings bear a closer relationship to photographic or cinematographic productions...(...).
(...) “There are moments in which the artist is in tangent with hyperrealism, although he is always one step removed, and thus avoids allowing the object to become no more than a mere pretext for representation” (...)
(...) (Newton) “belongs to the pedigree of figurativists, expressing himself through his own realism, bordering between reality and the imagination. The places exist, and we may walk along them, but the life portrayed is imaginary” (...).
