One of the Florida African-American painters known as the Highwaymen, Harold Newton was a landscapist with a fanciful, formula style that involved billowing cumulus clouds and the ocean. The group included Newton, James Gibson, and Alfred Hair, and were influenced by Albert E Backus, the "dean of Florida landscape Painting." He painted in and around Melborne, Florida, 1955-1987, as a member of the "Highwaymen," a group of itinerent black artists painting in the treasure coast area of Florida. Typically they painted on upson board, a manufactured product used by roofers, and they framed their works with crown molding and sold the paintings from their car trunks.