Lewis Nierman

I grew up in Hull many years ago, attending Hull Memorial School and was part of the last Hull class to graduate from Hingham High School. Over the following years I’ve lived and worked from Maine to Florida and my subjects are inspired by the many opportunities given by the landscapes and cities from North to South.

While being involved in the art of painting, I have also been a dealer, appraiser and art historian of fine antique paintings since 1961 specializing in Old Master and 19th century European and American art. Decades of work and study have led me to realize that great art is the product of a number of things. Looking beyond the level of technical proficiency a “painter”, in order to become a fine “artist”, must possess a personal vision and be able to convey it to the viewer. That vision may manifest itself in realism, abstraction, expressionism, impressionism, or any other “ism” that has found its way into our language over the centuries. We realize today that great art need not be “pretty” art. Greatness is that which makes us feel something that is unique and lasting. It can be pleasing to the eye and decorative as well, but its true quality will lie in its continuing power to make us think and feel while it also stands the tests of time, fads and ever changing connoisseurship.

Through experimentation comes evolution. Evolution results from the avoidance of “formula” painting and its inevitable repetition of style, subject and interpretation. My preference over the years has been to delve into several means of expression to convey my personal visions. The excitement and artistic stimulation garnered from treating varying subjects in a multitude of styles has freed me to enjoy my artistic experience to the fullest. I have painted for myself never repeating a painting nor having the desire to do so. The thought of waking each day to painting the same subject in the same way does not appeal to me in the least. If an artist cannot enjoy the process of creation, how can he or she expect the viewer to enjoy the result?  Now in these later years I again paint for the sheer joy of it and try to bring together all the findings of years of experimentation.

My personal visions essentially lie in trying to capture the elements of nature as they impact upon the environment and its inhabitants. A landscape, a city, a lake, a bird, all are stages and players used to capture feelings of light, wind, heat and cold. Humanity is only secondary to the physical and natural wonders which surround us. I Paint nature with a concern for what its elements make me feel more than what they make me see. Not only the movement caused by the wind, but also the flowing, pouring forth, vibrations of light. Light not only illuminates a painting; it moves through it, bouncing off objects as well as fusing with them.

Art has been my life and my love. If an artist cannot enjoy the process of creation, how can he or she expect the viewer to enjoy the result?

Email: lnierman@bellsouth.net