Newportant People: Watercolors by William Heydt

January 9 - April 4, 2010

A Wish come true makes a splash on New Year's Day '09, Easton's Beach, Newport, 2009 Watercolor on paper, 18 x 24 inches

Artist William Heydt sees Newport in bright kaleidoscopic colors – as a city filled with vitality and dynamism. In 2004 we exhibited a series of Heydt’s watercolors depicting some of the area’s most vibrant personalities and places. Heydt is winding down the series and this winter, you can see all of the completed works at the Newport Art Museum in “Newportant People.”

More than just portraits, Heydt’s pictures capture an essence of the city that tourists don’t see: Dr. Orest Zaklynsky, surgeon on a busy ward at Newport Hospital, or the Kilroy Family at One Pelham East before the St. Patrick’s Day crush. Whether his subjects are in front of a landmark - Capt. Dave McCurdy and the Rose Island Lighthouse Foundation staff - or behind a desk – Bill Vareika “at home” in his gallery, William Vareika Fine Arts Ltd – Heydt weaves their daily lives into the vivid fabric of life in Newport.