Newberry writes on his sales page:

When I began with the idea sketches for Denouement, in 1984, it was way beyond my abilities. Yet, my passion for radiance drove my inspiration and drew over a hundred sketches of every nuance and detail that found its way into the painting. Denouement is a story about what I think is the most sublime moment that one can experience in life: love. I worked on Denouement for about 3 years, Monday through Friday, working for money on the weekends. There are too many levels of things that go into make this painting for me to discuss them all here but I will discuss a few of them.

The composition is a cross on a diagonal, the axis line between the two chairs and the main focus on the line that connects the man and woman. In my knowledge of art history I have never come across a composition of figures in this manner. But my aim wasn't uniqueness for its own sake, rather, the composition was about connecting the two of them in a dynamic and fluid way. Though this is a detailed oil painting I didn't want it to have a brownish Old Master feeling to it, so I relied heavily on making pastel studies of every aspect of the painting. The consequence was pure, dynamic, yet, subtle color and light. Another aspect about the theme of the painting related to color, there is nothing moody or dark about love for me, it is about colorful radiance. Another aspect related to the color was that to keep the brilliance of the color and light and have it look natural with the objects feeling "right" in their locations I had to develop my own theory of color transparency; to integrate the whole thing. (I gave a lecture on this subject to a satellite conference of the European Vision Scientist Conference in Glasgow, Scotland.)

Denouement means an unraveling of a knot and the wrap up conclusion, after the climax, of a literary work; and I think it fits very well the after-glow of love making. On a lighter note, I had some debate about the images that would hang on the walls. One of them is a Picasso, of a young circus performer gleefully whipping her horse. The other is a serene land/seascape by Cezanne of the south of France."

In an interview by Andrew Schwartz, Newberry responds:

That particular painting was hard. When I started the project, the concept of it, the technical demands that I needed to overcome, were way beyond my skill level at the time. It was as advanced as anything I'd done — I'd say three times more advanced than anything I'd ever attempted before.

So, in making that painting, I was not in a state of flow. I was challenged at every corner — to make the light successful, to make the colors successful, to make the anatomy successful. It seemed that if I changed one area, that negatively affected other areas. The painting was a three-year project that was extremely demanding.

But I feel I succeeded in everything I tried to accomplish with the painting. In that way, I felt a tremendous exultation about the painting when I finished it. Every time I see the painting I also feel those feelings. So I might say that that painting was my most rewarding as far as being difficult, and accomplishing what I set out to accomplish.

And of course, that painting is also special for me because it has the philosophical message that I hold dear: the idea that the ultimate joy people can experience in life is feeling love. And I wanted the experience of that love to be joyous and colorful and warm. I think that state of being is the most important in the world.

In a Retrospective, Newberry writes:

Armed with a kind of crazy technical and fearless confidence, I moved to Los Angeles and began my most frustrating, epic and satisfying work, Denouement. My idea was to create a grand and powerful piece that would radiate the joy, release and contentment of being in love. Over a hundred studies of nudes, anatomical details, chairs, carpets, discarded clothes, and of atmosphere were drawn for the preliminary work. I used graphite, ink, pastel and, in one case, oil for these studies. The painting of the canvas took eighteen months of full-time work; the entire project took three years.

Parenthetically, I do not use photographs because I do not feel any stimulus from or emotional response to the medium. I did not anticipate how difficult an undertaking I had begun  —  to recreate love and contentment in light and color. The most demanding part of the project was the art of integrating a unique and spontaneous viewpoint, vast amounts of detail, empathy for the subject matter, the effect of glowing light and colors that would maintain an anxiety- and melancholy-free atmosphere. When Denouement was finished, I experienced a tremendous pride because I felt that I had communicated and forever captured in time, the joy, contentment and radiance of being in love.

I interrupted my work on Denouement to make a painting of Puccini, the opera composer. The painting is a salute to his soaring music, and a gesture of gratitude for his helping to support and sustain my wings.

My life spirit was completely exhausted from finishing "Denouement." The effort had taken its toll and I was thoroughly at a loss for what to do next. Three months in Greece and documenting my movement on the islands with pastels, were the solution.