Born in Philadelphia in 1875, George A. Newman studied art at the Spring Garden Institute in Philadelphia, and was the recipient of silver and gold medals upon graduation. He continued his studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and later in Paris with Frederick Rondel, an American National Academician.
Upon his return, he joined the Philadelphia Ledger as a courtroom and news artist. As a free-lance artist, he was commissioned to do architectural renderings and book illustrations. A later move to the rural Pennsylvania countryside near Lansdale enhanced his interest in landscape painting, which he did until his death in 1965.