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By MARKSCOLFORO
Rappahannock News Stiff Writer
“New Works by Dan Lewis,” a member-artist show by the founding father of the Middle Street Gallery and Artists’ Cooperative, runs from Aug. 30-Sept. 29 at the gallery in Washington, Va.
While focusing on the artist’s more recent oil paintings, some of the approximately 20 works on display will be older, to show viewers how his style has been evolving.
Mr. Lewis, a resident of Rappahannock, began the Middle Street Gallery in 1982 as a private, for-profit operation. In 1986 he changed the gallery’s organization, recruiting artists for a cooperative.
“I needed more time to do my artwork,” said Mr. Lewis.
All 15 gallery members are guaranteed a solo show every two years, although this show is not only his first solo show in Washington, it’s his first solo show anywhere. He has appeared in numerous group shows at Middle Street and in Northern Virginia, but never alone.
Most of his works in the upcoming show are oils, and feature local scenes and landscapes. Like a growing group of artists, he relies on the people and places of Rappahannock for subject matter. _
Asked why so many artists seem to gravitate toward Rappahannock, Mr. Lewis said two factors are at play.
“It’s a combination of the camaraderie with other artists and being out here away from the hectic city. Some artists thrive on [urban areas], but for others it’s just the opposite,” he said.
Mr. Lewis is a native of Washington, D.C., attend-’ ing Western High School and studying art at the University of Maryland.
He pursued a career in graphic art and in advertising art before starting to “paint seriously” 15 years ago.
“I was actually serious about art in the very beginning, serious enough to pursue careers in painting and drawing,” he said. •These
days art takes up about 50 percent of his time. The remainder of his working hours are spent doing massage therapy out of a room in the Middle Street Gallery building in Washington.
His September show includes about five paintings he finished on a recent trip to England, and one or two from his days as a watercolorist.
His paintings are smallish, usually about 12-by-l6 inches. He often photographs potential subjects in the field, then sits down to paint them at home, in his studio.
“About 50 percent of the time when the film comes back there’s something in the photo that resembles what you saw that made you stop and shoot it,” he said'. The rest of the time it’s gone, he said.
He started as a watercolorist, and did pen-and-ink drawings. Since working in the co-op he added oils, and
See LEWIS, p. B-8
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