Charlie Newton began drawing at the age of five years old. "I saw the light of God coming through the window when I saw a drawn picture for the fist time in my life. From then on I was hooked" he exclaims. Having received his BA from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, and his MFA from Old Dominion University and Norfolk State University Newton also studied with the University of Georgia's Studies Abroad Program in Cortona Italy. Since 1986 Newton has exhibited in London, Italy, New York, New Jersey, Washington, DC, Richmond Virginia, and numerous galleries in the South East including The Red Clay Survey, Huntsville Museum and Boundless Expressions, H. Lee Moffit Center, Tampa, Florida. His work is represented in private and public collections in the US and abroad including The Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN, The College of St. Elizabeth, Morristown, NJ, Sun Trust Bank, Chattanooga, TN, Wallace H. Kuralt Center, Charlotte, NC and The Chattanooga African American Museum, Chattanooga, TN. In 2012 Mr. Newton and his wife painter Iantha Newton founded SPLASH a free art school for urban youth. Mr. Newton maintains his art studio where he paints full time in Chattanooga, Tennessee.