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 2008 PASEO ARTS ASSOCIATION
OKLAHOMA ARTIST OF THE YEAR AWARDS |
Mark Lewis
Tulsa, Oklahoma
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Painting Statement / Mark Lewis
My paintings are about a way of seeing. My work exists because of my experiences, my interactions with nature and my environment. For many years I thought of myself as a still life painter. After I settled in Tulsa, I became visually attracted to the urban landscape, and more recently the Oklahoma skies. For the past 4 years I’ve traveled to the Tall Grass Prairie, to paint the transitional skies, just north of Pawhusksa. Seeing the figure in the urban landscape has rekindled my interest in the figure too. The last couple of years I’ve been painting the model in the studio in conjunction with the landscape paintings. Those paintings are slowly evolving, now I’m working on a family group - several figures in the interior at home. I also want to start working with several figures in the studio, creating studio fictions or narratives. Most of my work is based in direct observation. Occasionally, I’ll work directly with a blank canvas, but this approach always leads me back to direct observation.
I paint with my observations. I don’t illustrate them. Painting is a unique visual language. I want to use my observations to create a unique visual experience. I like to use jazz and jazz improvisation as an analogy. I like to think of the motif like a jazz musician might think of a standard tune. Building a musical idea as one becomes more familiar with a certain piece. Each day I respond to my paintings by building upon the ideas from the previous days experience. A lot of the landscape and figure paintings will evolve over a period of months. The painted notes from the Tall Grass Prairie might be resolved in 2 to 4 hours. There are unique occurrences in the sustained and quicker painting approaches. Both approaches are important to me.
I respond to paintings that have a human presence. This presence might exist in the paint handling, the quality of light, or by using the human form. Painting from observation provides a unique visual experience. It allows me to create a painted dialogue with the world around us. It is important for me to see and respond.
Mark Lewis / Bio
Mark Lewis was born in Oklahoma City in 1959. He grew up in several cities in Oklahoma and Texas, and attended High School in McAlester, Oklahoma. Mark studied painting at Oklahoma State University and received a BFA in painting at the Kansas City Art Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, and an MFA in painting at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Mark is currently teaching painting and drawing at the University of Tulsa, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2002, Mark was a visiting artist at the New York Studio School in New York City. In 2004, Mark taught painting and drawing at the Montone Arts Program in Montone, Italy. He had his first and second solo New York exhibitions of paintings in 2002 and 2005, at the Tatistcheff Gallery. He had three solo exhibitions in 2006 at Living Arts of Tulsa, Georgetown University and Northwestern Missouri State University. Mark is currently working on a commission piece to be installed in the new BOK arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The arena is currently under construction and is designed by Cesar Pelli. Mark and Laura currently live in Tulsa with their two children, John and Isabella.
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