About the Artist
Sonia Lewis
Throughout her award-winning career in catering and gourmet cuisine, as a restaurateur, as well as a designer of cut-work garments and table linen for local and export sales, the artist satisfied her lingering appetite for art by spending more than just a few vacations at the Louvre in Paris. Where she quietly absorbed the works of her favorite artists, Rembrandt and Vermeer, whose attention to detail, extraordinary precision and masterful treatment of light and shadow in their work, had a strong appeal to her.
Born , in the suburbs of St. Andrew and schooled in the island's capital, Kingston, Jamaica, Lewis recalls with delight the blissful summers of her gentile childhood, spent in the family-owned Great House nestled in the salubrious hills of Mandeville, in the island's interior. However, it is the images of the old coal stove; intricate hand crafted table linen; the water goblets; antique pitchers; coffee blooms, berries and beans, and the undulating hills that remain indelibly etched in her mind.
In 2008, faced with her impending retirement, Lewis entertained thoughts of realizing her dream of becoming an artist, but was besieged by thoughts that it could not financially sustain her. “I knew then that I had to spend time in quiet prayer and meditation to find an answer”, she muses.
Not long after, and through rigorous internet research, Lewis located an intensive course offered by a modern-day Dutch Master who was schooled in the work of Rembrandt and Vermeer, as well as the technique of underpainting and glazing. She, knew instantly that this was the answer she needed. She enrolled in the course and immediately set off for Brittany, France, to spend time mastering the technique that now hallmarks her winning style.
Lewis' oil paintings and Objets d'Art reflect the memories of the verdant hills of Mandeville, Jamaica's majestic Blue Mountains and the domestic implements upbringing, bringing to mind the graciousness of a gentler and kinder era. It is these that she seeks to reproduce on canvas.
The artist has gone global, showcasing both her Fine Art and her utilitarian Objets d'Art in various galleries throughout Jamaica, with private exhibitions in the United States and the Unites Kingdom. She has been contracted by resorts to not only provide art for their executive suites, but also to provide utilitarian Objets d'Art from her collection for their fine dining areas.
She now spends time painting between Florida and Jamaica.
Sonia Lewis joined Fine Art America on September 10th, 2015.
