Cynthia Newberry's Creative Studio

Victoria

2011-04-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

Finished Painting of Victoria

Process for 5 hour painting of Tori

2011-04-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

Victoria

2011-04-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

Painted for my 14 year old graddaughter, Victoria. Large square painting, 36x36.

2011-02-19T12:02:00.000-08:00

Looking Through a Rabbit Hole was painted on a large masonite board and then attached to a cutout in a teenage girls bedroom. Much easier to paint on a board than to stand on a ladder with my neck kinked backwards until it feels like it will fall off. Painting done in oil. Now Taylor can lay in her bed and look up into the sky and imagine all sorts of creative and fun things. Have fun Taylor!!

Baby Cruz' Mural

2010-09-25T10:23:00.000-07:00

This was a fun baby's room mural. It took about 6 hours and I was fed a delicious lunch! Thanks, Gera! Baby Cruz kisses the lion each night and sleeps in his crib under the monkeys. Children's rooms alway give me the greatest pleasure to paint. I know how much the children will enjoy them and this is the best payment of all!

September 11th, 2001 Painting

2010-09-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

This painting was painted the evening after the September 11, 2001 attack. I fell asleep and had a vision. I immediately got out of bed and started painting my vision. I painted furiously without much thought of what I was painting only trying to duplicate what I saw in my mind before the vision faded away. After finishing in the wee hours of the morning on Sept 12, I realized that the painting represented many spiritual symbolic things. 7 vigil candles, 7 human faces, 7 buildings through the smoke, 7 red stripes on the flag...7 is God's perfect number. I also realized that the little girl was painted in the image of my granddaughter, Victoria, who's name means Victorious! She also represents hope for the future.

Army Tank painted for American Legion's wall mural

2010-08-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

2010-07-31T23:02:00.000-07:00

I've been having trouble uploading pictures to my blog. Frustrating as it was working fine before. Will keep trying, but for now my blog looks to be on hold.

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T10:37:00.001-07:00

INDEPENDENCE DAY! Our country may have it's problems but we can never forget how amazing it is to have freedom. We are free to go where we want, be who we want, speak what we want! And this is the what we should hold on to when our country is at it's worst. It is GOOD to be an AMERICAN!

Recently, I was in San Francisco with my family to see the King Tutt Exhibit. As we drove down a SF street I saw a woman crossing the street wearing a burka. I was overcome by the urge to roll down the window and yell out to her -"Your in America, sister. You don't have to wear that thing! You're free! You're free!" but our car started moving before I dared to actually do it. Within a few moments I became really angry....how dare she wear that horrible thing in America? We have fought many wars, killed many humans to gain and maintain our right to freedom and she comes to our country and disrespects us this way. Yes, it may be her beliefs, her religion...but if I went to her country and had to wear a burka I would do so out of respect. But then this is what freedom is all about...you have the right to choose. You can choose to wear a burka or not. Freedom is tolerance. And I must be tolerant!

Mignardise

2010-07-02T23:04:00.000-07:00

Mignardise

The interview

2010-07-02T18:21:00.000-07:00

This is a beautiful video, amazing photography, incredible message. Click on The interview It is so worth a few minutes of your time. Open you heart and let it refresh your soul.

2010-07-01T06:18:00.000-07:00

Not knowing what I am doing with this whole blogging thing, I accidentially (or maybe not so accidentially) stumbled upon a blog last night that captivated me, DoverDesign Photography in Dover, England. I was inspired and thrilled when Photographer Alan Langley emailed me! Not sure how to find his blog again to become a Follower, but I do have his website and will frequent it often to view his wonderful work!

Some of my most difficult murals are ceilings! It is hot up against the ceiling, awkward body positions and your neck...ooooh, your head never has felt so heavy after 30 mins of kinking it backwards. In this ceiling mural an actual floor was built 6 ft. from the ceiling over a curved staircase and torn down once the mural was complete. This was a renovation in an old Victorian house in Santa Cruz on Walnut Ave., a beautiful tree lined street. The carvings, and beautiful woods used to restore this beauty were amazing. It took three weeks of working 4 to 6 hours at a time in the heat of summer, amidst the carpenter's sawing, hammering and blaring music. A frustrating combination for an artist! I tried the Michelangelo method of laying down to paint, but found it was much harder on my arm than it was on my neck standing up. The results of this ceiling were well worth it and has become my favorite mural!

2010-06-30T12:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my painting blog!

In this blog I plan to take you on a journey through my creative world, post my paintings, my creations and my thoughts. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I will.

So let me begin where my painting began. In 1998, bored with my medical office job and looking desperately for a cheap but meaningful gift for my boss, I decided after my boss showed me a tiny black and white snap shot of his brother and himself from the late 1940's, that it would make an amazing painting....and that I would paint it somehow. I had never painted anything before, but true to my character and "can't" void from my vocabulary, I couldn't imagine with a little instruction and concentration I couldn't paint just as well as the next guy. So, unbeknownst to my boss, while he was with a patient, I ran to the photo copier in our office and copied it. After seeing his patient I casually handed the snap shot back to him and told him what a sweet picture it was of him and his brother. That evening I went to Kinko's and enlarged the copy, bought some watercolor paper and paints and sat down and started painting. Dissatisfied with the first painting I threw it away after I figured out where I had gone wrong. Then I started over. This time the results were magical and to this day, twelve years later, it is one of my favorite paintings of all. I took it to a printers and had professional copies made before giving the framed original to my boss for Christmas. He had tears in his eyes when he opened it and realized what I had done. He told me that this picture was very precious to him and his brother (he is one of ten children) and that his brother, engaged at the time, had blown this tiny snap shot up to poster size, wrote "Will you be my best man?" on it and sent it to him. Priceless!

And so my painting career began....with no formal training I taught myself to draw and paint. I studied over many books, talked to many artists and learned by trial and error. Soon after painting this watercolor, I titled "Brothers", my husband and I bought a home with 20 ft. ceilings in the livingroom. Unable to afford a large painting to fill up some of the space, or even a huge canvas which is expensive to buy and then have framed, I stood on our brand new leather sectional, draped with a sheet and painted a mural. My husband has grown use to not knowing what he may find when he walks through our door, and this was like any other day. Unphased by my creative urges, he supports my need to create and has allowed me the freedom to evolve into the artist I am today. Within a few months a friend saw the mural in my livingroom and called his friend who was looking for a muralist. Shaking my head and whispering to him "No, I'm not a muralist. I really don't know what I'm doing!" he shoved the phone in my ear and before I knew it I had scheduled my first mural job. Within a year I quit my medical office job and started painting murals for a living. I couldn't believe it! This was the beginning of a whole new life for me. For once I made sense in the world! All the disconnected pieces of my personality and colorful, visual mind fit together. I realized who I was for the first time in my life and I was 38 years old! Now I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that I am an artist, was born as artist and will always be an artist to the day I die.