River Lewis, Contemporary Okanagan Artist
Contemporary Canadian artist living in the Okanagan Valley. I hope you'll have fun with the way I think about things and how I make contemporary art in BC Canada.
View my website at www.riverlewis.com/canadian-artist-fine-art/ : follow me on twitter @riverlewisart.
Friday, December 27, 2013
This page is now discontinued. Thanks, River
Sunday, April 1, 2012
U8 Exhibition at SOPA Fine Arts in Kelowna
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
SMALL WORKS on Display at Brew Gallery Fireside Room
in the Fireside Room, Brew Gallery presents Small Works by River Lewis, a mini exhibition of drawings and paintings. The artworks represent mental landscapes influenced by local landscape. Often working strictly from memory and the feeling of place and time, Lewis follows internal conversation to realize art mark-making externally.
Small Works is also on display at the Brew Gallery from March 14th to April 12th 2012.
The Brew Gallery is located in Downtown Vernon inside the Bean To Brew Coffee House, next door to the Vernon Public Art Gallery and exhibits artwork in the Main Gallery and the Fireside Room.
Brew Gallery hours are 7:30am to 4:00pm Monday to Thursday and 7:30am to 3:00pm Fridays. For more information please visit the Brew Gallery at 3202 - 31st Avenue, email brewgallery@gmail.com or visit the website at http://www.brewgallery.ca .
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Small Works for end of year shows
been working small the last few months
Getting ready for end of year shows at Artsolutely, the Vernon community arts centre's fund raising art sale, and the Lake Country Art Gallery's Under 100 exhibition and fund raising art sale! Great places to get one-of-a-kind original xmas gifts!
Here are a couple examples of what I've been doing when I didn't answer that phone call.
Dark Predator Pool is acrylic on canvas measuring 8x10 inches, thus 'under 100' square inches in size!
Not sure the title of the second one yet... Any suggestions?
The third pic was a lot of fun to do and I think it looks fun! It's upside down tho... must have held phone the wrong way when taken.
Come out to the sales and have fun looking at all the incredible Art! Will try to have some pieces for Penticton Art gallery too, in December, hope to see you in Vernon, Lake Country, or Penticton!
Friday, March 4, 2011
Twins Begin Journey
Friday, February 4, 2011
Drawing from the car
The intense red here is no exaggeration! It was really this red, check out more on the web: Okanagan Artists Drawings.
The webpage shows a time-lapse series as the red colours came up and disappeared. In contrast to that stunning glow, my perception of the ground seems to have changed with the differences in light.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
New Roadside Trash Blog
check it out, leave a comment. If interested to work on the okanagan trash blog in partnership, please contact through: http://roadsidetrash.blogspot.com.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
SKIES and PEOPLE 1, Intervention Evolving
A series I've continued to work on over the past few months,inspired by the Commonage, the image is a screen capture from my reformed local history series 'SKIES and PEOPLE 1'. Text throughout the images of this series is deliberately cut off drawing the viewer in to particpate with the reformation. The character interaction describes the ability and dignity of all things in the context of the artist/patron/administration-owned hierarchy within the gallery experience. As the outsider, the people depicted in images choose their own destiny and belonging inside the Gallery.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Okanagan Artists Trading Cards
Had a great time talking about artist trading cards on Wednesday to the Vernon Hi-Noon Toastmasters. I had given this impromptu speech last month to the Monday Night Club and new I had enough material to talk about at length. I decided to change it up a bit because the Vernon Public Art Gallery has an artist trading card exhibition on right now, and the Hi-Noon club meets in the next building over at the Bean to Cup. I encouraged those thinking about making some art to consider trading cards because the cost is not prohibitive, and every artist is appreciated in this non-hierarchical community of artists.
View this Okanagan Artists website for more images.
My experience making artists trading cards for the Richmond Art Gallery exhibition was quite funny and resulted in my first set being published in the ATC Quarterly Magazine. Basically I was playing around with ink blot figures and out popped some conjoined twins. Many times when I begin to make a two-dimensional art piece I will play with shapes and materials, allowing the piece to reveal itself. View my artists trading cards. When I found the Richmond Art Gallery's call for submissions to the artists trading card show I only had four days to get them in.
I decided to just go with this theme because it was immediately fascinating and also because of the time restraint. Don't be afraid of making any art!
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Skies and People Series I (Photo Essay) and Series II (3-Dimensional)
Polyon I, Digital Media Art, 2010, in progress |
Series II has been bumping around in my head for months. A lot of prep work went down in October and November, mostly raw photography and some accumulation of garbage materials, and natural materials. Yesterday I finally had the right energy to attempt build the 3-Dimensional prototype for a person. I had collected dryish grass at the site where I realized for the first time that i had discovered a spirit that had joined into physical existence. Because it was not a balanced existence, the spirit was having a very difficult time coordinating itself. I had been studying these manifestations of static and dynamic existence since 2006 but did not understand what it was about. I sensed something real there, but it wasn't tangible, and since our society is preoccupied with mostly the tangible, I'm afraid it took me several years to get through the plastic of our lives. to be continued...
Friday, December 3, 2010
New Poems, Digital Art
Two pieces are posted on my artist website: http://www.riverlewis.com/contemporary-canadian-art/media-arts.html
Naturally, the five dominant squares outnumber the four non-dominant squares. The non-dominant squares contain words and it is clear which dominant square the words came from. All the viewer needs is a single word and many dominant phrases can be construed. Dominant behaviour, akin to bullying (without getting into reasons or relationships), can occur as a continual grind, barrage, or onslaught. Dominant behaviour can be alternated with non-dominant behaviour and the overall themes of behaviour are processed by recipients in many different ways. Whether dominant behaviours are perceived or real they create a response in the recipient, for which the single word titles of these works reflect a loss or inability.
Poems have been extracted with several different versions. See my Writing Catalogue here: http://www.riverlewis.com/contemporary-canadian-literature/Catalogue.html
River Lewis is an Okanagan artist working and living in Vernon BC Canada. As a contemporary Canadian artist, my themes are influenced by life in Canada within and without. Inter-personal perception, belonging, and value in all things drives my art-making practice.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Wow That Speech Went Really Well.
James Q opened by introducing the concept of his constructed discussion panel, which was to provide solutions to his question "How can we nurture a more vibrant community." Cindy Masters opened the discussion with her speech defining community and applying a mandate to be fully inclusive of all people in the community including those marginalized and disadvantaged.
I followed by explaining how contemporary art can be used to actively educate toward change.
To do this I felt it was first necessary to give a brief definition of art. I did this by breaking down the art-viewer experience into two parts: the things you see, such as color, shape and craftsmanship; and the things you don't see, including that art triggers emotion, symbolizes a bigger picture and creates benefits to a community. Contemporary art in Canada can facilitate the visibility of those marginalized. Visibility demands consideration and mutual respect.
Karen Truesdale anchored with her speech on the topic of creating a living wage for all citizens, that offers an ability to realistically provide for families and stop companies from passing the burden of subsistence onto the community when those companies employ for minimum wage.
The three speeches were followed by a question and answer period allowing audience members to seek additional clarification on the speakers' topics. The night was a truly educational experience for audience and panelists alike, in the context of a caring community.
I had coined a new word recently, 'glossiship', and grammarian Lacey Irwin challenged me to include it in my speech at the last minute, which I did! You can see my word and three definitions thereof here: http://www.riverlewis.com/contemporary-canadian-literature/poetry/glossiship.html
I find the word historically appropriate to our time and trends in contemporary society to produce large amounts of production line artwork quickly. See if you can use it sometime in a conversation!
Friday, November 26, 2010
BC Government Not Pulling Weight
Now let's look at actual Provincial spending by the Province of BC: The Arts Research Monitor reports that among all Canadian provinces, BC spends the second least on culture. Interpreting this can be complicated, but clearly the Province of British Columbia does not have the same regard for the value of culture as do local participants and municipalities in arts and culture. The Government of British Columbia only spent $76 per capita on arts and culture in 2007. Compare this with the leading province, Manitoba, that was able to spend $144 per capita on arts and culture in the same year, and Alberta, that has no provincial sales tax, was still able to spend $93 per capita on arts and culture.
I feel the Government of British Columbia has the resources to spend on arts and culture, considering increased provincial sales taxes and gaming revenues. But the province chooses to let municipalities and local organizations bear the greater burden of fundraising for culture in general.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Discussion Panel @ Monday Night Vernon Toastmasters
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Back to Brush and Ink Indoors!
So indoors is where its at, brush and ink is a time-honored tradition on drawing. I really think Brush and Ink, Sumi-e, etc. is the missing link between painting and drawing. Not only can you create colorful works of art quickly, brush and ink drawing keeps you loose and fresh to go back to longer duration works. In the Okanagan, artists don't do enough brush and ink drawing although watercolours are very popular. But just like oils or traditional drawing watercolours can lack spontaneity which is exactly what expressive brush and ink drawing brings.
I'll be teaching Drawing with Brush and Ink at the Vernon Community Arts Centre in January, check it out, we'll have a lot of fun! http://www.vernonarts.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126&Itemid=216