Discover the contemporary work of Claire LEWIS

I n t e r v i e w - b i o

Could you introduce yourself in a few words?
I was born in 1947 in Neuilly, in the wave of the post-war baby boom.
My first twenty years were marked by the world of holidays where I followed my parents who created the Mediterranean Club.
It is difficult for me not to mention this determining point for me and which also marked a whole generation in search of escape and freedom.
Coming from a very avant-garde family and immersed in an innovative movement, I very quickly experienced creation as a necessity.

Since when have you been painting?
I started to the age when others pass their baccalaureate, I then followed courses at the Academy of the Great Lands in Paris and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome.
In truth I did not do a complete course, I was traveling a lot.
I started by working on silk, for the material and the brilliance of the colors that emanate from it of course but especially for what it requires of precision in the gesture.
This work was very intuitive, I still think about it often today, so as not to lose this freedom of gesture and movement.
It was much later while taking classes from Jean Claude Athané at the Nicolas Poussin workshop in Paris that my true expression was revealed.
He taught me to see, to be the inventor, the discoverer of the " thing looked at", he taught me the non-legible content of lines, points, dynamics and rhythms that make a work exist through its content of essential abstraction.
The problem of the figurative and abstraction being as he likes to say a false antagonism and in this I agree with him.

Many of your paintings deal with the female body, do you work from a model?
In this workshop we worked only with the live model.
I later returned to watercolor and then to oil these works, others were made from memory, still others from imagination.

When you start a painting, do you have a precise idea of the desired outcome?
Yes and no. Most of the time I first work on my subject in a sketchbook until the construction suits me, then I create the sketch on the canvas.
It is only then that I begin to paint, seeking an outcome through color, this phase is never planned at in advance.
I also sometimes attack a painting directly on the canvas.

Could you identify your painting?
Today I would place it in between, between figurative and abstraction.

I read that in your family there was a very talented painter
Yes, it is my paternal grandfather, Roberto LEWIS, whom I unfortunately did not know, since I was born two years after his death.
A student of the Atelier Bonnat, an eminent classical portraitist, in the School of Fine Arts,
Roberto was recognized in Paris in 1905, at the Paris Salon, then very widely in Panama where he resided.
A player in the Impressionist movement, he was part of the group that revolutionized the art of the time.
Roberto's most visible work is the ceiling of the National Theater in Panama.

Since the sad years of confinement, the  Claire LEWIS' work is only visible on certain online galleries.

THE ART OF CLAIRE LEWIS
Anton Rajer
I've had the privilege of observing the evolution of Claire Lewis' art for many
years and I like what I've seen. Deeply interested in the female form her
paintings, drawings, and watercolors focus on utilizing the human body as a
point of exploration and discovery. In her work she carefully balances a keen
observation of anatomy with a strong sense of color, composition and a lyrical
sensous line, whether it be paint, pencil or pencil. Her innate sense of color
harmony is evident in her paintings of female nudes, but also in her more
recent study of fruits and flowers. The play of light on surfaces also
Claire fascinates as well as textures and formal design. She constructs a
beautiful world which is both intimate and personal.
Claire is fortunate to be from a distinguished international family of
painters. Her grandfather was the famous Roberto Lewis, who painted during the
French Belle Epoque in Paris and later resided in Panama.
Claire's multifacted artistic talent has also manifested itself in fabric
arts, beautiful applique textiles with plant forms.
Her work is a careful balance between naturalism, abstraction, and the study of
color and design. I recommend her to you.
I have had the privilege of seeing Claire LEWIS's painting evolve for many years.
Strongly inspired by the female body, she uses the human body as a field of
exploration and discovery.
In her works, she combines a keen sense of observation with a pronounced sense of color,
composition and movement, whether drawings or paintings.
Her innate sense the harmony of colors is evident when it comes to nudes, but
also in these more recent works of fruits and flowers.
The play of light captivates her as much as the drawing itself,
she thus constructs a magical world that is both intimate and personal. 
Claire is fortunate to belong to a family of internationally renowned painters.
Her grandfather Roberto Lewis was a famous painter of the Belle Epoque in Paris and later
in Panama where he resided.
His work balances judiciously between naturalism, abstraction, and the very sensitive study of
color and drawing.