LEWIS, Ffiona

1964 - ?

Ffiona Lewis was born in London in August 1964, daughter of Neville Lewis and his wife Pamela née Sowerby, but grew up in Tones, Devon. Ffiona studied at the Polytechnic of Central London, now the University of Westminster, where she achieved a B.A. (hons) in Architecture in 1987 and continued her studies for her Diploma which she completed in 1990 and was Architect UK registered. Following her studies in architecture, Lewis attended a series of short courses at St Martin's School of Art and began painting professionally. Once she had made the transition from architect to artist, Lewis met artist John Wells (1907-2000), who introduced her to the luminaries of St Ives, Patrick Heron (1920-1999), Terry Frost (1915-2003), Janet Leach (1918-1997), and Rachel Nicholson (born 1934), amongst others. In 1996, she had a two-person exhibition with Nicholson at Dartington Art Gallery at Dartington Hall. Lewis’s works are composed of small-scale ‘glimpse’ paintings, still life in the main, the structural marks she creates in graphite and paint are bold and gestural, the marks of an architect. Working in oil on panel, her delight in the landscape and sense of place, with all its observances, is clear. Her subjects include a miscellany of table spoils, picnic views, coastal walks, and boat paraphernalia and alongside her domestic geography, several paintings are floral portraits, picked flowers, and the gift, potted exotic, which serve as a thread to draw inferences of character and story. Now dividing her time between her studios near the River Deben in Suffolk and London, Lewis has exhibited at a number of venues, including Kettle's Yard, Cambridge; Fry Gallery, Saffron Waldon; Snape Maltings Galleries, Suffolk; Redfern Gallery, London; The Northcote Gallery; Sligo Art Gallery, Ireland; Art 98 and Art 99, London; North House Gallery, Manningtree; and galleries in Cornwall, France and Denmark. In 2005 Lewis published her book 'Drawn Out of Elsewhere'. She has also illustrated Jennifer Potter’s book ‘The Angel Cantata’ (2013). Her work forms part of collections at House of Lords, Palace of Westminster; Truro Law Courts, Cornwall; Slaughter and May Headquarters, London and New York; and ING Barings, London.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from c/o Redfern Gallery, 20 Cork Street, London
2004 368 Evening Pier, toward island
2006 619 Caravan Park, February
2011 539 Geranium Lake, Anemone
2014 680 Stalks and Stems

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Works by This Artist