Media Release

Udupi, Aug 12: An art exhibition by Peter A Lewis, an acclaimed Indian artist renowned for his paintings for over 50 years, will be inaugurated at the artist's own art gallery "Chitralaya" in his home town Brahmavar here on Monday August 15.

Peter Lewis paints and draws to convey a familiar image and leave enough unstated to arouse curiosity and interest. His brushwork captures the essence of the familiar, while subtle inner vision enables viewers to perceive his paintings with individual meaning.

Note, for example, the prosperous fish wife, smug with the richness of her catch. A preliminary glance at her comely form would suggest an obvious tribute to the abundance of land and sea. A thoughtful viewer is stimulated to think beyond the plump woman and her equally plump fish. The picture has an implicit environmental message, suggesting that the abundance of the moment carries the seeds of future decline. Sapphire waters are locked in embrace with emerald verdure. The landscapes and seascapes fixate on canvas a suggestion of beauty that is fragile and vulnerable to the imperatives of development and defense.

Insights into tribal life have furnished the stimulus for aspects of Lewis’ creative impulse. The inebriant spirit of the Kudubis, brandishing pots that dually serve as percussion instruments and toddy containers spills over from a happy canvas. A poignant tenderness also attends these depictions of rustic innocence, at odds with the frontal assault of modernity. Potters waiting for elusive customers convey the despair of a precarious traditional livelihood in a pervasive age of plastics. One senses also the irony of tribal musicians, whose poverty stricken lives are a far cry from the auspicious import of their ceremonial melodies.

Coastal Karnataka has been a melting pot of faiths, and this is duly reflected in Lewis’ work. Ganesha, traditionally the scribe of the Mahabharata is evoked as a patron of the creative process, enjoying an expanded role as a Painter wielding art materials. Deep feeling and effort have been expended on that vast canvas “The Life of Christ,” with its interesting use of light and shadow, where clever smudged effects indicate thematic progression. The Artist seeks to propagate a message of peace and harmony with the dramatic contrast of colour symbolism forming the backdrop for another passionate portrayal of Christ, anguished in a landscape of violent discord.

Many of Lewis’ paintings evoke the genre of 19th century French Impressionist Painters whose bold colours and fluid forms were a landmark in Western Art, constituting in a latter day, the cream of art collections and auction house offerings. One discerns in Lewis’ work a suggestiveness of reality that mediates between the exactness of a photographic image and pure flights of abstraction. It is thus that coloured specks signify the wild excitement of spectators at a bull race. An aggressive dynamic of movement and raw energy animate the stances of cockfights. To this broad stylistic construct is wedded the largely indigenous origin of subject theme to constitute a distinctive artistic output.

The genesis of his art harks back to early boyhood explorations of the countryside’s inherent magnificence. Lewis’ skills were honed at the renowned Sir JJ School of Art which awarded his promise a Gold Medal. Awards and honours have accompanied his artistic evolution, of which those emanating from the State Lalit Kala Academy and the All India Dasara Art Exhibition stand out for their frequency. A Rajyotsava Award in 1990 and a Roerich Memorial Award in 1996 crown his endeavours. Over the long course of a fruitful career, the public have had occasion to take in his offerings at prestigious galleries in India and abroad.