Stanley Lewis, View from the Porch, East Side of House , 2003-2006, Acrylic on canvas 38 3/4” x 48”
Yesterday I posted drawings by Stanley Lewis. Lewis was one of the influences listed by Charity Baker at the New York Studio School. Looking through Lewis’ art and writing, I found an interview on Painting Perceptions that talked about his methods, and his influences:
“[Painting from perception] often feels like a horribly impossible thing to do but you somehow do it anyway.” – Stanley Lewis on Painting Perceptions
Lewis says that one way to paint what you see accurately is to figure out the proportions and use a frame. The rectangle of the frame helps to determine the relationship where the verticals and horizontals intersect. Then you work to unify and relate the pieces spatially to each other.
View from Barn Window , 2008, Oil on canvas 14” x 14”View from the Barn Window (Detail) 2011,Oil on canvas 16” x 23 1/4”
Honestly, if I hadn’t taken Jonathan Harkham’s class I would think Lewis is talking about the standard struggle to paint as I knew it, the way I learned it in school, but these guys are using the language in a different way, their paintings have something special in them. They’re doing a different thing. It’s complicated and exciting … and I’m starting to get it.
Stanley Lewis, Still Life with Photograph of Karen, late 1970s, oil on masonite 48″ x 54¾”
“It can get very complicated; it’s difficult to explain. When you try to get everything working like this you realize that it actually can’t be done. How do you find a consistent stabilizing position? That’s what I’m interested in and that’s what I’ve been trying to do for my whole life.” – Lewis
Stanley Lewis, Corner of Connecticut Ave. and Calvert St. , 2002, acrylic on paper, 40″ x 45½”
Wilbur Niewald
Lewis worked with Niewald at Kansas City Art Institute for 17 years, and says that Wilbur Niewald, now approaching 95 years old, had a huge influence on his style, and carries the key to perceptual painting in America.
“You have got to find out about his paintings (…) Wilbur is an interpreter of Cézanne and Mondrian.” – Lewis
Following his advice, I looked up Wilbur Niewald. More in the next post.
[image_with_animation image_url=”9566″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Alice Neel, James Hunter Black Draftee There are a lot of reasons artists don’t finish paintings. Death, for one, such as in Vincent van Gogh’s “Street in Auvers-sur-Oise” unfinished from the June in 1980 that he shot himself. Lovely painting, horrible death. Correction: According to the research of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers …
One year ago in March, to protect our students and teachers from a new coronavirus, the Seattle Artist League moved our classes online. The virus was declared a national emergency, and we went into quarantine. We have now been in quarantine for thirteen months. Through this year, we have met each other online to draw, …
[image_with_animation image_url=”9362″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I went to see Figuring History at the Seattle Art Museum (closes soon!). Figuring History is a selection of work by three generations of contemporary black American artists (Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas) as they use their spin on white dominated painting traditions to address the white dominated …
Stanley Lewis talks about his mentor
Yesterday I posted drawings by Stanley Lewis. Lewis was one of the influences listed by Charity Baker at the New York Studio School. Looking through Lewis’ art and writing, I found an interview on Painting Perceptions that talked about his methods, and his influences:
“[Painting from perception] often feels like a horribly impossible thing to do but you somehow do it anyway.” – Stanley Lewis on Painting Perceptions
Lewis says that one way to paint what you see accurately is to figure out the proportions and use a frame. The rectangle of the frame helps to determine the relationship where the verticals and horizontals intersect. Then you work to unify and relate the pieces spatially to each other.
Honestly, if I hadn’t taken Jonathan Harkham’s class I would think Lewis is talking about the standard struggle to paint as I knew it, the way I learned it in school, but these guys are using the language in a different way, their paintings have something special in them. They’re doing a different thing. It’s complicated and exciting … and I’m starting to get it.
“It can get very complicated; it’s difficult to explain. When you try to get everything working like this you realize that it actually can’t be done. How do you find a consistent stabilizing position? That’s what I’m interested in and that’s what I’ve been trying to do for my whole life.” – Lewis
Lewis worked with Niewald at Kansas City Art Institute for 17 years, and says that Wilbur Niewald, now approaching 95 years old, had a huge influence on his style, and carries the key to perceptual painting in America.
“You have got to find out about his paintings (…) Wilbur is an interpreter of Cézanne and Mondrian.” – Lewis
Following his advice, I looked up Wilbur Niewald. More in the next post.
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[image_with_animation image_url=”9566″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Alice Neel, James Hunter Black Draftee There are a lot of reasons artists don’t finish paintings. Death, for one, such as in Vincent van Gogh’s “Street in Auvers-sur-Oise” unfinished from the June in 1980 that he shot himself. Lovely painting, horrible death. Correction: According to the research of Pulitzer Prize-winning biographers …
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One year ago in March, to protect our students and teachers from a new coronavirus, the Seattle Artist League moved our classes online. The virus was declared a national emergency, and we went into quarantine. We have now been in quarantine for thirteen months. Through this year, we have met each other online to draw, …
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[image_with_animation image_url=”9362″ alignment=”center” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] I went to see Figuring History at the Seattle Art Museum (closes soon!). Figuring History is a selection of work by three generations of contemporary black American artists (Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas) as they use their spin on white dominated painting traditions to address the white dominated …