Lewis Bryden

In an article on Bryden, Martha Hoppin speaks highly of his sensitivity:

"Bryden is a poet. He constructs studies of light and air and space. ‘I am not painting a landscape,’ he says, ‘I am painting a painting.’ Despite the artist's emphasis on the act of painting, he cares deeply about his subject matter. He communicates his own joy at being outside in nature and his sense that the world is a satisfying place to live. He depicts nature's beauty in its serene and comfortable moments. The human element in relation to the landscape does not interest him. He does not seek drama, and he does not strive for ‘higher’ meaning through the use of symbolic motifs. His works are most remarkable for their feeling of harmony and serenity, and above all, for their unaffected naturalness."[2]

In 2002, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Bryden's visit to Cuba on an artistic mission. He spent five days there and completed a series of "plein air" paintings.

I had permission from the Treasury Department to go to Cuba on a kind of cultural exchange, and I intended to use the time to do as many "plein air" paintings as I could, even though I only had five days. My impressions were quick and sketchy; it is hard to say how much they might have changed with more time spent there. Although I do not know a lot about Cuba, it has always formed a part of my imagination. My youth spent in Florida was filled with stories told by people who had visited it as tourists before the Revolution and by refugees after the Revolution who remembered it as their lost homeland. I always had a very vivid image of the island in my mind. My short visit there both confirmed and contradicted that vision. Now, in my mind there are two Cubas—the Cuba imagined or remembered from stories, versus the Cuba seen and experienced. The tension between the two, finally, forms a theme for this series of paintings.[5]

Bryden has taken several painting trips to Colorado and the neighboring states of New Mexico and Arizona. He enjoys the spectacular scenery in the mountains and the dramatic seasons.

For an artist who pursues light, Alaska is a natural setting. Bryden has gone to Glacier Bay, Alaska to capture the unusual lighting conditions there. In the Alaskan summer, painting could be done in natural light from very early morning to nearly the middle of the night.

Bryden has painted a series he calls ‘’Boardwalk Idyll’’ that spans over 30 years of work. The series, which explores the eternal summer of adolescence, was exhibited at the Brooklyn Public Library in 2004 and later at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts. In a talk about this series, he states “Other artists before me have used Coney Island, each in his own way. I started studying the work of Reginald Marsh, David Levine, and the photographer Bruce Davidson. My own particular inspiration was a fascination with people in public places who are acting out their private dramas.”[3]

One collector of Bryden's work, Michael Mao, has four of the series’ near life-size paintings displayed in one small room, creating the illusion of having walked into a cocktail party where people have already gathered. “The figures are friendly, not intimidating, so they are a welcome addition to our home,” said Mao. “When Lewis borrows them for an exhibition it is as if some of the family has gone missing.”[6]

Bryden's method for these pieces was inspired by the “crust of paint” on impressionist Claude Monet’s work “Water Lilies.” Bryden developed his own textured sculptural-style technique to create the surface texture for his Boardwalk paintings. To “mimic the atmospheric conditions of a hot summer day,” Bryden mixes Neo Megilp with 50% stand oil to coat his canvas. He then adds pigment and varnish, “as much as the canvas will take.”[6]

Each painting portrays a moment of interaction or isolation on the boardwalk. Bryden describes them, “They’re [moments] of tranquility, waiting for something to happen.” They tell a story. “Each of one these is a stand-alone story, even though I have no idea what the story is.” He captures people's interactions, “I wanted them to react to each other. He goes after the tension that is built when they “recognize that the other person exists.”[7]

With the bustle of the Boardwalk, Bryden relies on sketches and photographs as well as sessions with live models for his pieces. A few paintings were inspired by a box of Kodachrome slides he found of a couple. The slides captured scenes similar to the ones he had been painting. As there was no way to identify the owners to return the slides, he used the images as an inspiration for several pieces.[6]

Bryden began visiting Mexico annually in 1993. During his visits, he does informal portraits and sketches in the public squares capturing plein air impressions of the moment. In 1994, he put his work together into a series, “Tierra Insolita” which was formally presented in the exhibition at the Galleria Ixcateopan in Acapulco in that same year.[8]

Acapulco is his home base during these visits, but he takes trips with friends to remote, mountainous areas of Guerrero. During one of these trips, he decided to do a series on the average, everyday person living in Mexico.

Writer Stephen Lockwood describes these paintings: “Every picture in the series is very direct, there is little for the eye to focus on, other than the facial characteristic of the subject. The directional gaze of each sitter is varied: some look directly at the viewer, others look off to the left or to the right. The different position of each head has the effect of changing how engaged or disengaged each portrait is with the observer.”[8]

While Bryden has done many portraits, he does not consider himself a portrait artist and has never taken a commission for a portrait. He usually paints friends and family and occasional professional models. He has done a few self-portraits, but they have rarely been exhibited.

Bryden is very interested in the relationships and stories of people he paints. He is attracted to stories of artists and the relationships they have with the muses that inspire them.

As with the rest of his art, Bryden's sculpting technique is mainly self-taught. He has recently been doing more sculpture, having entered this mode after he learned one of his models was allergic to turpentine. His time with the model was limited and he wanted to capture her features, so he turned to the medium of clay. He later learned the process of bronze sculpture and stone carving. His most recent commission, Nature as Muse, is a life-size bronze in the Mallinckrodt Garden at the art center called View in Old Forge, NY.

• Doezema, Marianne, et al., "Changing Prospect, The View from Mount Holyoke." Cornell University Press, 2002
• Driscoll, John and Skolnick, Arnold "The Artist and the American Landscape," First Glance Books, 1998 (illustration)
• Little, Carl, "Paintings of New England," Down East Books, 1996