Joy Newton Designs: Jewelry, Home Decor and Decorative Accessories in the News.

When scientific detail graces lovely objects

By Mary Murphy

Joy Newton doesn't have to wait for spring to see flowers. A longtime scientific illustrator, she has now applied her talents to home décor, and in doing so has brought the spring and summer indoors for every season.

Vases, bowls, mirrors and other decorative items for the home are all adorned with Newton’s lifelike images of purple hydrangea and strawberry, of star magnolia and the statuesque grace of the hollyhock. Who knew an eggplant could be so lovely, or a radish so artistically refined?

In the skilled hands of this artist, the renderings of fruits and vegetables on functional objects become an art form. The forest green of the radish’s leaves, their spines executed in perfect detail , the tiny petals of the hydrangea as it shows off its multiple hues of purple, the bee-embracing ruby reds of the horse chestnut, are also lifelike they look as if they were just pulled from the garden bed.

Newton keeps her studio in West Granby, where she has lived in an 18th–century house in the town’s historic district for 12 years. The artist and her husband, a landscape designer, have transformed the property into a flourishing oasis of plant life. For her art, Newton wanders through the gardens and steals her inspiration from flowers, vegetables, shrubs and trees. Her husband’s background in horticulture helped the couple create the gardens and Newton’s eye for detail and plant life enabled her to recreate the plants on home furnishings.

Home décor was not always in her sights. She was born in Bethesda, Md., the daughter of a scientist. Her parents were both gardeners; their influence instructed and motivated her toward the design work that is so key to the successful creation of gardens. She attended the Art Institute of Chicago, with junior year at Parsons School of Design in New York City, and interned at the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Entomology in Washington, D.C. She also has a longtime affiliation with National Geographic magazine, where she contributed illustrations as a freelance artist.

“I’ve always been drawn to Mother Nature and all of her beautiful forms and colors,” she said. “Every moment of this beauty would pass so quickly, and I’ve tried to create a way to capture it. So I developed the line of home décor, and I’ve also branched into jewelry design.”

Her products can be seen on her website at www.JoyNewtonDesigns.com She also displays her work at select shows, including museum art shows, special events for various institutions, garden tours, plant days at nurseries and private showings.

Her work will be available for viewing at the Wadsworth Atheneum during Hartford’s Fine Art & F lowers Show May 1 through May 4. It will also be on view at the Hillstead Museum in Farmington during the “May market” May 9 and 10.

Those who miss those venues can find her in June at the Garden Tour of Westport, sponsored by the Westport Historical Society.

Newton has focused on creating art objects that can be used in the home. The shapes of the mirrors, picture frames, bulletin boards, and the various ”vessels” on which she has created her designs are all important to the finished product, she says,

“It had to be a functional piece,” she said, “and all the pieces-their shapes-were something that I had developed an eye for.”

From that thinking came the idea for the jewelry line, and the concept of art as adornment. Sterling silver illustrated pendants, earrings with a smaller version of a flower or plant illustrated, and soon, much-in-demand bracelets will appear as part of her collection. She uses vintage velvet ribbon on her pendant necklaces, with easy clasps for those who find standard clasps difficult to manage. Bamboo illustrations also will be a featured part of her artistic home décor line.

“Every season, every year, I’m painting new illustrations, new plants,” she says. “This year, it will be the Siberian iris, the peony, and for spring, beautiful red tulips.”

Newton treasures her clients, many of whom have become devoted customers and collectors. “I love it,” she says, when someone comes up to me and says, “I am purchasing a piece because I have been collection Joy Newton designs for many years.”

Their continued interest has enabled her to break into a field she enjoys immensely, the marriage of art and home.

“It’s wonderful,” she said. “I feel that I’m really doing something that I absolutely love. Painting with these wonderful pigments, creating a piece that someone can use is wonderful.

“I pursue this venue because I love the beauty of plants, I love working with the natural pigments in the watercolor medium and I enjoy capturing the detail of the plant specimen. I’m also thrilled to see people wear or display an item that I have designed. It gives me deep personal satisfaction to know that my work brings beauty into people’s lives.”