Newton Conder

About the Artist.

A self-taught artist and street photographer, I started snapping pictures after receiving my first Brownie camera as a childhood Christmas gift. 

While growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I filled coloring books and sorted buttons to keep busy alongside the artists and designers in my family. Early influences included my grandmother, who was a milliner at a downtown clothing store and her husband, Henry Newton Conder—the only one of my grandparents who had management experience, passing on to me a love of managing people and projects. 

You will see lots of color in my work. Color evokes excitement as well as enthusiasm in me. I feel a vibration when using color that lifts me and affects my mood. I hope the viewer feels these same feelings. Color helps me communicate both ideas and emotions. In my work, I paint what I feel and not so much about what I see.

In 2020, I retired and moved to New Mexico then Oklahoma City with my spouse. Traveling to New Mexico when I was a child, I was drawn to the openness of the land, the smell of piñon pine, and the colors in the blankets worn by the Pueblo people. After the pandemic, we moved to Edmond, OK and I began to show my work publicly.

During the time I lived in New York City, I had a very vivid dream that communicated to me to buy paint supplies—and throughout the winters of 2003 and 2004, my painting career began. I started by painting my photographs. I’m a nonconformist in color, with a playful style that combines with whimsical projections of animals and cowgirls to make my work both provocative and humorous! I think there is some “Cowgirl” in all women.

If I can claim any kind of formal art training, the credit goes to Stephen Kilborn in Pilar, New Mexico, and Rebecca Tomlin of Bokchito Artworks in Denver, Colorado.

Galleries:

2023

Paseo Gallery One. Okla City February

Wildfire on Paseo Okla City March and April

Blue Sky Art Gallery Santa Fe, NM April-current

Adobe Western Gallery Ft Worth, TX October Current