Because First Friday falls on the 4th of July national holiday this year, the official First Friday Art Walk for July is scheduled for Friday, July 11 from 5-8pm.
In addition to being the featured artist at Bend Visitor Center, Newhart is launching the First Friday Artwalk Detective Club. The Detective Club is meant to engage children and those that are young at heart to discover and get into the Bend art scene by discovering paintings around Bend.
Each young Art Detective will receive a special sticker pamphlet to use as they collect artwork stickers at participating Bend businesses.
There will be seven stickers to collect (all of paintings by Newhart). The paintings are entitled: Village, The Dude, Cargo Faith, Cups, Invitation, It’s 2017 Charlie and Mischief. There will also be one extra sticker when the Artwork Detective meets Newhart.
Newhart says his approach to painting is entwined with the idea of painting music. He says music, especially improvisational jazz, is probably the highest authority on how to live life. Painting is a way to get close to that — the silent brush in search of sound. “If I could approximate — in art — the colors, notes, rhythms, tones and textures that Mile Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Brad Mehldau, (and today Torrey Newhart) put into sound, then I would be very pleased.”
About Bob Newhart:
My approach to painting is entwined with the idea of painting music. Music, especially improvisational jazz, is probably the highest authority on how to live life. Painting is a way to get close to that — the silent brush in search of sound. If I could approximate — in art — the colors, notes, rhythms, tones, and textures that Mile Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane (and today Brad Mehldau) put into sound, then I would be very pleased.
Much like research scientists, artists are usually interested in everything. They go in search of problems because they are curious and anxious to learn. But it should not be a forced adventure. Artists I admire most seem to do only what is easy, effortless, and enjoyable — while still eating.
The artist Georgia O’Keefe once said: I am glad I want everything in the world — good and bad — bitter and sweet — I want it all.
Both art and science are characterized by discovery, creativity, and innovation. They are interpretative activities — they are both about meaning and they both use models and metaphors to make the invisible visible, to provide some sort of explanation.
This reminds of the story of the small girl who when asked by her teacher what her drawing was supposed to be replied: it is a picture of God. And when the teacher said no one knows what God looks like, the girl responded: they will in a minute when I am finished.
Much of my art is about an eternal quest to embrace uncertainty and put it to music. It’s about leaving expectations and judgments behind because they infect us with impatience, disappointment, anger, and rigidity. Sometimes we think that expectations allow us some degree of control. Actually, expectations control us.
If the artist leaves those things behind s/he can move on to experience the natural combustion that comes from the mix of wonder, spontaneity, imagination, creativity, resourcefulness, and fun.
For me, art is an attempt to answer questions. But you must destroy judgment while seeking the answers.
Newhart grew up primarily in Hawaii and California. He has also lived in Bend for over three decades.
Newhart first “studied” art as a fourth grader at Maunawilli School in Kailua, Hawaii, where he had his first one-person art show at the school library. After that, his art “education” came through direct participation.
While in the fourth grade, Newhart decided he wanted to be an architect. He drew pictures of radically modern houses and cars that ran on solar power and with an air cushion for wheels.
He moved quite a lot as a child with 14 school changes in the seventh/eighth grades. These experiences directly impacted how he views and engages in the world around him.
He sold his first painting (a figure walking in a mist toward the viewer) to a neighbor when he was in the tenth grade.
Beginning in his senior year of high school, Newhart spent a lot of time studying Zen and the Mahayana Tradition in Buddhism. Look closely at his paintings and you will see and feel ragged edges of these influences. He sums up what he has learned from his studies this way: “Those who speak don’t know… and those who know don’t speak.”
Years later he would graduate from the School of Architecture and Environmental Design at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, California. There he explored his keen interest in design and discovered that constraints lend themselves to innovative design. This is partially why he so often limits his work to a simple 24 x 24 inch canvas. He says that, “There is a striking connection between creativity, art, music, and innovation. A canvas is a box… you need to go outside of it and then bring it all back in.”
After finishing graduate school, Newhart focused on earning a living to support his family by serving in faculty and leadership positions at several colleges and universities; advising hundreds of business enterprises — from wood chips, to potato chips, to silicon chips; working for three Northwest Governors; and managing non-profit organizations.
Eventually he founded the Innovation Center where he focused his attention on coaching individuals and organizations to discover and launch their futures through creativity and innovation. Much of his time there was invested in exploring the convergence of creativity, art, and innovation. He developed a process — intentional innovation — centered on finding and celebrating the networks and patterns between creativity, music, art, and innovation. He is the on-screen host of the Powered by Innovation® Film Collection including the popular Free Radicals of Innovation film aimed at teaching the art and practice of innovation. He organized several statewide and regional conferences, hosted regular TV/radio shows for businesses, wrote many articles, and has been a sought-after international speaker.
Though he still selectively advises entrepreneurs and speaks at events and conferences, Newhart spends most of his time in the studio. This is the setting where he finds the convergence of creativity, music, art, and innovation: a silent brush in search of sound…
Now, for the art of Newhart. While visiting newhartist.com keep these few points in mind as you navigate his artwork:
- • The bulk of his artwork reflects a deep interest in music, particularly jazz.
• While he is working, there is usually a cup of orange tea with Cointreau at hand.
• Newhart likes to humorously respond to art of important artists (Rothko, Mondrian, etc.)
• On the whole, his paintings are acrylic painted on a square canvas — most often a 24 x 24 inch canvas.
• He also does works on washi paper, recycled plastic packaging, cardboard, walls, and so on.
• Newhart loads up a lot of thought in his paintings. Visually unpacking them can take some time for the viewer. But time with his paintings is rewarded as they gradually reveal their elements and secrets.