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A Better (but not yet complete) Biography
Until now, the only biography of Newt is found in Denise Berg’s, Piecing a Town Together: Families of Lyons Colorado, published in 2010. It is short and contains some inaccuracies. Newton ThomasSeptember 17, 1860-July 18, 1940 Newt Thomas came to Lyons from Indiana. Mr. Thomas had a talent for painting and through the years he…
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Building a biography
Biography is one of the oldest art historical approaches. In Renaissance Italy, the 16th-century artist and writer, Giorgio Vasari paved the way for artist biographies when he wrote about some of his artistic contemporaries, including Michelangelo and Leonardo, in The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters and Sculptors. The book helped rocket them into art superstardom…
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Notes from a recent visit to Lyons: stories about Newt, a new painting recorded, and a promise made
While recently visiting my parents in Fort Morgan, in rural northeastern Colorado, I planned a day to drive to Lyons with my mother as my travel partner to meet Monique, the Lyons Redstone Museum Collections Manager, to give her a research update and to check out a few things around town. The tips of the…
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Update and Digging In
[You might need a fresh cup of coffee to go with this post, it’s a long one.] View the Gallery to see all Newt Thomas related artworks in the Lyons Redstone Museum collection and more. While January 2024 marked the official beginning of my sabbatical leave to work on this project, I’ve been steadily working…
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Article in the Lyons Recorder
I was delighted when Kathleen Spring, the Editor of the Lyons Recorder, recently asked me to contribute an article about Newt Thomas and my project. The article appeared in today’s edition. Lyons is fortunate to have a local source for community news that also provides a historical record and continuity with the past. The old…
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Provenance
After a search, I found a photograph of Grammie holding Newt’s painting of Lyons in a box of old photos and keepsakes my mom had given me many years ago. One of the things that art history research entails is determining the provenance of an artwork. Provenance is the history of the object–who owned it,…
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What is this project?
A painting by Newt Thomas, depicting a view of my grandmother’s hometown of Lyons, Colorado, hung in my grandparent’s modest 1920s bungalow home in Longmont for over sixty years. In a his-and-hers arrangement, it flanked one side of a large mirror that once hung in my great-grandfather’s short-lived candy store. On the other end of…
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Newt Thomas (1860-1940) 