Updating My Website: SteveLewisArt.com

I do not know how many people are checking out my site but I am happy to have it and feel it is important to keep it up to date.  Tonight I worked on adding the artist groups that I hold a membership.  I also added better photos of two paintings that were hanging in a show and one of "The Duel" which I just completed.

The Duel, oil on canvas, 75 x 160 cm, 2015

 The location is taken from Fortescue, NJ, not far from where I grew up.   The beach along the Delaware Bay was a mess after a storm and the green-heads were tearing my son and I up as we were trying to take a series of photos of the beach, houses, and the horseshoe crabs.

The plan was to set up a great deal of tension between the two figures, making the viewer contemplate what is happening and why.  Everything is quite ordinary... at least if you have seen houses on stilts and horse-shoe crabs before.  I also was excited with the idea of cropping the head of the person in the foreground.  I wanted to bring reference to those great westerns with the duel scenes.

Final Showdown Scene from Silverado (1985)

I hope it comes across to the viewer.  It is something I would like to experiment  with further in future work.  Originally I had planned to have two gunmen by the car but was encouraged to play it down so the viewer would create the missing narrative.  I am so glad that I did. 

So let me know what you think about "The Duel" and check out my web site... www.SteveLewisArt.com

Inviting You to My Art Exhibition- Steve Lewis: Meta-triptychs

Getting Ready for the "Optimaler Schnitt" Exhibition

Since February I have been working on 4 paintings for the "Optimaler Schnitt" exhibition.  This coming Friday is set-up day and then the show opens on Saturday, April 12th.  The exhibition officially runs for 24 hours from midnight to midnight.  I am happy to have finished 3 of the 4 works so far.  I knew that the space I had been allocated would hold 3 paintings nicely and this was the target I wanted to reach.

The exhibition will be held in a 5 story apartment building which was last inhabited probably 5 to 10 years ago.  The rooms still look as they did when they were occupied.  The room I selected seems to have been last used as a baby's room (the wallpaper design and growth marks on the door frame tipped me off).  It is interesting to think that the child who slept there is now maybe 10 years old.  The three paintings that I have completed for this show have images of children that are central to one of the narratives depicted in each scene.

These paintings are to be the first of a series of what I am calling meta-triptychs.  I came up with this idea after reading about metamodernism and the Notes on Metamodernism by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker.  Each of these paintings presents a single scene in which 3 narratives are playing out, all of which are in a state of flux.  The composition may also be arranged in a manner whereby the viewer feels as though they are part of the environment or could easily imaging stepping into the scene – where they become part of the narrative for that moment and begin to contemplate what to do next.

I am really looking forward to this 24 hour show.  It will be the first time exhibiting since I attended the Artist Teacher Workshop and the first time showing my new work with the meta-triptychs.  I hope the show is successful.  That being said, no matter how it goes on Saturday, completing at least 3 new works means that for me it has already been a success!

In Between Time, oil on canvas, 75x160 cm, 2014.

Liberty, oil on canvas, 160x145 cm, 2014.

His GTO, the Raccoon, and You, oil on canvas, 105x160 cm, 2014.

Exhibition space, room 409, awaiting installation.

Exhibition Poster.