Once a week, Harry Newman travels from his Thousand Oaks home to lunch at Terri’s on Swarthmore. Now a familiar fixture at the restaurant, where he’s been dining for five years, the architect spends about 30 minutes eating and illustrating what he calls ‘architectural fantasies’ on Terri’s white paper tablecloths. ‘I saw the paper and crayons, and started doodling,’ says Newman, an Illinois native who moved to California in 1975 ‘because I loved the weather.’ In Chicago he had worked as an illustrator, doing full color renderings of architectural plans for various publications. Fluent in acrylic, watercolor, charcoal, pencil and ink, Newman says, ‘I hadn’t used crayons since I was 6 years old.’ He explains that ‘most people don’t know how to use crayons’ and that ‘if you know what you’re doing, you use them the same way you use charcoal.’ Ripping back the paper wrap from a black crayon, Newman demonstrates how he uses the side of the crayon to make the long, sweeping strokes that create so many of his cityscape images hanging on the walls of Terri’s. ‘ ‘Some are blocky, some are ethereal,’ says Newman, describing the variety of solid color illustrations in blue, purple, turquoise, red and carmel-brown. ‘They’re big visions of roadways, building shapes, bridges, automobiles and trains.’ About a month ago, Terri Festa told Newman she wanted to have an exhibit of his work at her restaurant. Her husband, Chip, mounted Newman’s illustrations on stiff but lightweight black foam core with double-faced tape, and Newman helped arrange his pieces on the walls. Then, when Terri opened her new restaurant, Terri’s Cafe, in Agoura a few weeks ago, Newman did an illustration opening night and gave it to them. ‘It’s the only original I’ve given away,’ says Newman, who estimates that he’s done about 300 illustrations so far. While they are fantastical images, with futuristic themes defying gravity and rational landscape, Newman says, ‘There’s logic behind every one. I do them so that structurally, they could hold up in a fantasy-type world.’ With a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois, Newman got his first California job as an architect designing and constructing a small recording studio. He started his own architectural business and got his break when he designed Herb Alpert’s studio at A&M, which led to more studio jobs with the record company. Now, Newman says most of his work is on the Westside and in the Palisades, where he designs ‘highly important homes’ for celebrities. He is currently working on a large project on San Remo. ‘I can’t come to Terri’s and eat and not do an illustration,’ says Newman, who usually works while he eats, with his lunch plate on the drawing. ‘I’m somewhat obsessive, so I have to sit outside to eat if I’m not going to do one.’ One of Terri’s customers recently called Newman’s illustrations ‘tablecloth art,’ though Newman says that a good amount of thought goes into each piece. ‘I have to be really thinking about what I’m doing,’ he says. On the back of each illustration, Newman writes the date and a little something about what he was doing before he came to Terri’s that day. He also has started to sign the new ones ‘at Terri’s’ to distinguish them from the older pieces. While Newman says he enjoys using all different colors, he admits, ‘Black is a favorite because it’s like charcoal. And there’s something so pure about it’like black-and-white photography.’ When asked if he has a favorite illustration, Newman quotes Frank Lloyd Wright and says, ‘the next one.’ Then he continues, ‘Doing these illustrations when I’m not working on homes is part of what keeps me honed in. Each one keeps me sharp.’ For more information, visit Terri’s Restaurant at 1028 Swarthmore.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
