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| ROBERT LEWIS Oils on Canvas | << Back | ||||
“When you paint, you must always be checking yourself, your thinking. What DO you think about it? Is it true? Does it move you? Is it coming from within, in response to what is without? Be faithful to the truth of what you are painting and you will be led.” |
About the ArtistRobert Lewis is a native Californian but has lived in many parts of the country including Alaska, the Northwest, the South, and the East Coast. Perhaps this has contributed to his long fascination with the stunning and varied beauty of the landscape. He starts from a direct point of view that practices dislodging the usual filters we place between ourselves and the world. Practicing this, he tries to convey the beautiful mystery of the landscape. The combination of two enduring themes of his life, a love of landscape and the practice of seeing directly, has led naturally to plein air painting. Plein air painting is the perfect expression of love of landscape and the desire to show it as it is experienced. Unlike a camera, which sees with a blind eye, the artist sees with emotion. Finding ways to capture that emotion, that feeling one gets when looking at a landscape, is the art of painting. Lewis paints in oil on canvas on location, finishing his paintings on site usually in a single sitting. Plein air painting, however, being a complex struggle of mind, nature, and time, tends to push the artist down a path that he already knows. Experimenting on location is less likely, and so development of the artist's skill progress more slowly. This is where studio painting becomes the perfect balance to plein air. In the stable environment of the studio, the artist has the luxury to experiment, to play, and to learn, bringing what he has learned back to the world outside. Plein air makes a better studio painter and studio makes a finer plein air painter. Lewis maintains a painting studio in the Pacific Grove Art Center building, Pacific Grove, California, where, when not painting outdoors, he works hard at play. Gallery Elite, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California South Street Gallery, Easton, Maryland "My California: Portals and People", National Steinbeck Center , Spring 2007 "The Passionate Landscape", Le Beau Soleil Gallery, Spring 2006"Grace Your Walls", Le Beau Soleil Gallery, Winter 2005 "The Bordeaux Countryside", Le Beau Soleil Gallery, October 2005 "Farmlands, Wetlands: Landscapes of San Jose", Stone Griffin Gallery, Campbell, October-November 2005 "Sirens of the Garden", Founder's Choice Award, Tomatoes 2005 "The Colorful Coast: Landscapes of the Monterey Peninsula", Le Beau Soleil Gallery, June 2005 "Carmel Art Festival Plein Air Exhibit", Honorable Mention, Carmel Art Festival 2005 "See the Gift", Le Beau Soleil Gallery, Holiday Show, 2004 "The Challenge of Plein Air", Le Beau Soleil Gallery, October 2004 "Views of the Land: Plein Air Painters of the Monterey Peninsula", Pebble Beach, September 2004 "Two Views", Alvarado Gallery, Monterey, August 2004 "2004 Monterey Plein Air Festival", First Place Winner, Monterey 2004 "Carmel Art Festival 2003 Plein Air Competition", Honorable Mention, Carmel 2003 "Plein Air Sunscapes", The Art House, Pacific Grove, CA, 2003 "Coyote Valley Artists", Gallery Kiosk, San Jose, CA 2003 Galleries South Street Gallery, Easton, Maryland William Lester Gallery, Point Reyes Station, California The Nest, San Jose, California Mum's Cottage, Carmel, California Le Beau Soleil Gallery, Pacific Grove, California Museums Academy Art Museum, Easton, Maryland Competitions Carmel Art Festival, Carmel-by-the-Sea, California Plein Air Easton, Easton, Maryland San Luis Obispo Plein Air, San Luis Obispo, California Frank Bette Plein Air Competition, Alameda, California
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