Here is what the artist has to say about her work and her activity in the art world... “...My work is characterised by experimentation and a combining of media to better explore different themes, interweaving disciplines to create an individual and evolutive reality. Rich in symbolism and fuelled by the seduction of the intangible, my work questions what it is to be Woman. My work has received a large number of awards and medals over the years. I have also been a selected artist in a wide variety of international exhibitions and cultural exchanges. Returning to my native Yorkshire in 2016, I became an executive member of Leeds Fine Artists in the same year. I now divide my time between France and Yorkshire [UK].”above centre ‘REVERBERATION’ acrylic, graphite, oxidised metal leaf and colour pencil on poplar panel (120 x 84) 2013 above right: HANABI gesso, acrylic, graphite and colour pencil on wood panel (60 x 50) 2017

the art of Nathan Lewis“ideas dressed in light” (no data available) ©Nathan Lewis

Nathan Lewis an artist with a respectful sense of the past and a passion for contemporary art a short introduction written by Denis Taylor artist and Editor of Tubes magazine plus an extract from an interview with John Seed (©2015] Professor of Art History published in the Huff Post 03/30/2015I first became of Nathan’s work in early 2016 when surfing the results of one of my many Google searchesfor ‘Real Art’ in the 21st Century. It was a lucky day for me as I was delighted to click on an interview withNathan and John Seed. It was an interview that gave me the desire to investigate this artists work more.The interview (in the Huff post) was great because it explained the various paintings he created, directlyfrom the mind of the artist. A rare treat in the days of ‘academic’ art-speak, especially in the UK - with theirabsolute need to explain a bland derivative conceptual work of art to a bewildered audience.However, rather than give space to the explanations that Nathan eloquently gave to John, in thisissue of Tubes I would prefer to save those explanations until a later date. Tubes mag will publish afull dedicated issue to Nathan and a few other known selected artists (in issue #15 or #16) which willdiscuss the question of ‘realism’ and it’s relevance to art in the coming decades of the 21st century.Something I really do look forward to researching and writing.For now I will present the reader with a ‘resume’ of the artists activities and qualifications. Not that I feel itis in anyway important for a painter [today] to have any qualifications whatsoever be a good or an excellentserious artist, but the degrees have helped Nathan to secure regular income with the absolute pleasuresassociated with sharing knowledge and guiding the next generation of artists (onto the right paths). So,Nathan Lewis, MFA is a Professor of Art at Sacred Heart University. He received his MFA in painting fromTufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He subsequently received a BFA indrawing and painting from Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme, Connecticut.

Past exhibitions include “The Blessed Isles-Paintings of Nathan Lewis” at Jack the Pelican Presents in NewYork, “Full Circle” at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, “Marking Time- New Explorations in drawing,”at the Dishman Museum in Texas, and “Speak to Me: the Connecticut Biennial” at the Mattatuck Museum of Art.He has consistently participated in solo and group exhibitions at galleries, museums, and universities throughout theUSA. His paintings have been on the cover of numerous books and journals, and his work was included in films shownat the Cannes and Sundance Film festivals. Nathan’s work has been published and reviewed by the Boston Globe, theNew York Press, International Artist, New Haven Magazine, the New Haven Advocate, Fine Art Connoisseur, the NewHaven Register, Art in New England, Big Red and Shiny, the Hartford Courant, the Republican American, and the NewYork Times. He has also delivered lectures on Art at various organisations and institutions. Having said all that here isan extract from the John Seed interview Denis Taylor, Artist and Editor. Tubes magazine. (The John Seed interview, here is Nathan filling in his background and influences).“...I moved to St. Petersburg, Russia for six months in 1993. I had no formal training there, but I lived about threeblocks from the Hermitage, and would draw regularly from the Rembrandt and Rubens paintings. I spent more timein that museum than I had in any classroom and I really started to detect the eccentricities of different artists’ work. Ididn’t know who Ribera was before I was in St. Petersburg, but I was so excited by the paintings of his, I thought I haddiscovered a great unknown artist. Of course as I went to more and more museums, I would come to realise that theyalso had work by Ribera. The paintings in the Hermitage held a secret and spoke a language that I felt connected to butdid not understand fully.

left: “Till we find the Blessed Isles Where The time in front of those works was the beginning of aOur Friends Are Dwelling” lifelong pursuit of looking at paintings in museums and72 inches x 120 inches galleries, learning and deciphering the language. At the tail2008 end of my time in Russia, I went to Krakow, in Poland to see Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine, and hitchhiked to Germany,below: “Light is the Lion that Comes to visit the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and the GemaldegalerieDown to Drink” in Berlin. The time in museums, the books I was reading, the48 inches x 67 inches2012 music I listened to all shaped my work.©Nathan Lewis - all rights reserved I consider these integral parts of my education, much of which happened outside of school. in 1995, I studied in Italy at the Florence Academy of Art for a semester. It wasn’t a great fit for me, but being in Italy was a dream. I skipped school a lot and would go to the churches and the drawing-room of the Uffizi to be with the works that spoke to me.

“orange was the sky” 72 inches x 66 inches oil on canvas - 2010 ©Nathan LewisWhen I moved back to the states, I painted a lot, but over time felt I still needed some form of instruction. I went toLyme Academy College in CT, which had a component of academic instruction, but a larger faculty with broaderscope than the FAA and a great art historian, Joy Pepe, whom I married ten years later.I got my BFA there, took a year off, and then went to SMFA, Boston and Tufts University, receiving my MFA in2004. SMFA was very different from the other schools I attended, and it was a welcomed change to be thrown inwith artists working in the full gamut of media explored today. As far as the people in formal schooling that had thegreatest influence on my work, Fred Dalkey at SCC and Joy Pepe at LACFA. In Fred, I saw that it was possibleto be connected intimately to this vast history of art, even in work that is contemporary in nature. Through JoyI came to realise that art was much bigger than its maker. She challenged me intellectually and gave me insightinto the complexity of how art can be interpreted, and how it has functioned in culture. This excited me to thinkthat we, as artists, are playing with images and juxtapositions of which we may not gather the full meaning.It gave me a larger sense of what art could be.”

Nathan recent exhibition. Invisible Cities- was mounted at MOCA March 2019 to July 2019 below is an extract from the introduction to the exhibition “This exhibition presents paintings by Nathan Lewis that address a sense of longing-a longing for escape, prosperity, justice, love, completion, a promised land, or an invisible city. At the same time, however, the works also suggest what stands in the way of these longings and dreams. Painted over a ten-year period, these paintings explore contemporary life and politics, and depict complex social narratives drawing inspiration from literary, philosophical, cultural, and musical references including American alternative rock band, The Pixies, twentieth-century writer Franz Kafka, and the German philosopher and cultural critic, Friedrich Nietzsche.” ....go to:https://mocajacksonville.unf.edu/Exhibitions/UNF-Gallery/ Invisible-Cities--Paintings-by-Nathan-Lewis/“The Trees become Her.” Oil on Canvas. 48 inches x 30 inches (1220mm x 760mm (also on the back page ©Nathan Lewis)

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TUBES #14 art magazine for collectors of contemporary art painting: ©Nathan Lewis