Paul Newton

Australian portrait artist Paul Newton has works in the permanent collections of The National Portrait Gallery of Australia (six works), Parliament House Canberra, Princeton, Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities, the National Basketball Association in New York, the Cleveland Clinic, The Temple Emanu-El New York, Morgan Stanley New York, Credit Suisse First Boston, the Domus Australia chapel in Rome, and numerous other collections worldwide. His portrait sitters have included U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, pop singer Kylie Minogue, NBA Commissioner David Stern, White House Chief Economics Advisor Steve Friedman, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, writer Bryce Courtenay, radio and TV broadcaster Alan Jones AO, rugby legend David Campese, Governor General Sir William Deane AC KBE, former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and ABC Chairman Donald McDonald AC.

Newton was the 2023 recipient of the Draper Grand Prize award at the Portrait Society of America's International Portrait Competition.  Newton has been a finalist in the prestigious Archibald Prize on 13 occasions, with portraits of such notables as David Gonski AC, Frank Lowy AC, Maggie Tabberer, John Laws, Pat Corrigan, Rupert Myer AO, and Kate Fischer. His 2001 entry, a portrait of Olympic Games commentators Roy and HG won the Packers Prize and The People’s Choice Awards in Sydney and Melbourne. Adding to Newton’s impressive array of awards, he was a finalist in the American Society of Portrait Artists’ 2001 International Portrait Competition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and his portrait of rugby legend David Campese won First Place in the 2002 Portrait Society of America’s International Portrait Competition in Philadelphia. Newton won First Place in the same competition in Washington, D.C. the following year. He won First Place in the Portrait Society of America Members’ Showcase competitions in 2009 and again in 2016 for a commissioned portrait of Dean Bill Russel for Princeton University.

In 2010, Newton was commissioned to paint 32 paintings for the interior of the Domus Australia Chapel in Rome, Italy.  Among the 32 works is a portrait of Australia's first canonized saint, St. Mary of the Cross MacKillop, and a new depiction of Our Lady of the Southern Cross.  An earlier painting of Our Lady of the Southern Cross was commissioned for World Youth Day and it hangs in St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney, where it was blessed in 2008 by Pope Benedict XVI.