Newton began studying painting and drawing in the 1970s with Scott Halem (who was a former student of artist Frank Herbert Mason) in San Francisco. Newton moved to New York City in 1978 to study painting and drawing in the studio of Frank Herbert Mason at the Art Students League of New York. Newton met his future wife, Suzanne McBride Newton, when she modeled for a painting in the Mason class at The League. In addition to The Art Students League of New York, Newton also studied art at Pratt Graphics Center, Rhode Island School of Design, and Bard College (Masters of Fine Arts/MFA). Newton had a lifelong desire to learn new techniques and skills to add to his artwork, be it drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpting or blacksmithing and welding. To support himself, he worked as a bartender at the Algonquin Hotel, an exhibition and design preparator at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum, and an art teacher in a high school and several colleges, including Guilford College (where he was a tenured professor of art.) All along he diligently worked at making, exhibiting, and selling his paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures.
