Robert 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.
| Click on a thumbnail to enlarge. | << Back | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 626 | 627 | 628 | 629 | 630 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
| 621 | 623 | 624 | 625 | |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 616 | 617 |
618 | 619 | 620 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 611 | 612 | 613 | 614 | 615 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 606 | 607 | 608 | 609 | 610 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 601 | 602 | 603 | 604 | 605 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 596 | 597 | 598 | 599 | 600 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 591 | 592 | 593 | 594 | 595 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 586 | 587 | 588 | 589 | 590 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| 581 | 582 | 583 | 584 | 585 |
| More Paintings >> | ||||
| Copyright 2007 Robert Lewis. All Rights Reserved. Copyright infringement will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. |