Ever since I can remember art has been a piece of my life. There have been times that it has been all consuming and other times when I've not been able to produce any work. I have always thought of art, and the craft of putting things on paper or canvas. I remember having small children and looking at leaves and mountains and mentally figuring out how to go about painting these things that I loved.
I majored in Art History with a minor in Studio Art and English. My father Donald Sykes Lewis Sr. ran an Art Gallery, Auslew Gallery, in Norfolk, Virginia. I was eight when he opened the gallery. Both my parents painted. I was around art my whole life.
When I was four years old I contracted polio. My mother used art to entertain both my younger brother and myself with crayons pencils and paper. She even used the old card boards out of my Dad's shirts, that came back from the laundry. We'd have drawing contest and no one lost . She's always found some way to encourage us. Awarding everyone a prize of a treat. This was a way of keeping me busy and happy when the other children were running around. Not to be done in I too did my share of running around playing hide and seek and climbing trees, even with crutches and a brace on my leg.
Because we were both brought up creating art works we never gave up our art work. My younger brother Donald Sykes Lewis Jr. actually started painting after College before I did. He encouraged me to pick up the brush and canvas. But it wasn't until my youngest son Lewis was in school that I decided to go back to painting.
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