John Richard Lewis

Artist’s Statement: My first endeavors as a visual artist began over 50 years ago, back in the halcyon Sixties when I was a teenager. I was originally inspired by the DC artists of the Silver Age and the Marvel Artists of the Marvel Age of comics. My favorite comic book illustrators were Carmine Infantino, Murphy Anderson, Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, Jim Steranko and John Romita. My artistic talents languished on the back-burner as a “hobby” for many years due to lack of professional training and a 25-year career in IT as a professional project manager. However, in the 1990’s I began a program of self-study in figure drawing and comic book art production, which led to my current journey to create graphic novels based on speculative fiction concepts which I have been developing for over thirty years.

In conjunction with my re-training as a novel writer from 2009 to the present, I am developing works of 2-D visual art as I work through a post-baccalaureate B.F.A. program in 2-D Art at Georgia Southern University.

My current work on the degree program and the accompanying B.F.A. portfolio has focused on Drawing, Painting and Print applied to concepts derived from my written works of fiction, novels, screenplays and graphic novel scripts. I am engaged with a number of unique speculative fiction world-building concepts and settings. These engagements and their research lend themselves to the creation of 2-D artworks to capture the scope and nature of fictional settings and characters.

Past Works

Illustration for Writing for Healing 2010 short non-fiction.

Illustration for Advanced Fiction Writing 2011 novel chapters for “Prelude to Millennium” super-soldier Jack Donalson.

Current Works

2-D Abstract perspective digitized and colorized Fall 2016.

Oil on canvas 16 x 20″ KAA Film still-life based on colors from “2001 Space Odyssey” shuttle-pod bay scene.

Black ink 12 x 12″ linoleum cut print (1 of 5) on Stonehenge paper “L’age jurassique sur Mars” relief of “The Calling of the Gray Prophet” 2017.

Digitally enhanced illustration for screen print layer of work for promotional poster of  “Out of Jurassic Mars” graphic novel 2017.

(1 of 5) 4-color screen print 16 x 20″ on Stonehenge paper promotional poster for graphic novel “Out of Jurassic Mars” 2017.

Intaglio print (1 of 5) for graphic novel “Out of Jurassic Mars” depiction of organic space elevator suspended by dumbbell-shaped asteroid in Mars areosynchronous orbit 2017.

Color pencil self-designed still-life on Bristol board 18 x 24″ Mythology project “The Fox and the Grapes” 2017.

Color pencil abstract on Bristol board 18 x 24″  “Solar Daze” 2017.

Pencil, pen and ink on Bristol board 12 x 16″ of self-designed still-life “Bon Appetit” Final Project 2017.

Acrylic on canvas 9 x 12″ “Props of the Titanic” construction in Belfast c. 1912 “19-Teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Acrylic on canvas 9 x 12″ “Props of the Titanic Submerged” from modern photography “19-Teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Acrylic on canvas 12 x 16″ “Props of the Titanic Submerged 2” from modern photography “19-teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Oil on 18 x 24″ canvas impasto with palette knife “The Halifax Explosion 1917” from B&W historical photography “19-teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Oil on 18 x 24″ canvas “The Halifax Explosion 1917 Clean-up” from B&W historical photography “19-teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Acrylic on 24 x 36″ canvas “General Pershing Arrives in France 1917” from B&W historical photography “19-teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Acrylic on  18 x 24″ canvas “Battle of Belleau Woods in France 1918” from B&W historical photography “19-teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Acrylic on 59 x 59″ self-made stretched canvas Masters Appropriation project from “The Calling of St. Matthew” by Caravaggio “The Calling of a Celestial Steward by the Second Adam 2311 A.D. 2018.

Acrylic on  18 x 24″ canvas “Red Scare One 1919-20 NYC Protest” from B&W historical photography “19-teens Series: Nothing New Under the Sun” 2018.

Acrylic and mixed-media on 24 x 36″ wood panel “Geographic Implosion” Abstract project Spring 2019.

Impasto acrylic on 26 X 42″ self-stretched canvas “Dark Matter” Abstract project Spring 2019.

Pencil, pen-and-ink on 11 x 17″ Bristol board colorized in Photoshop for Graphic Novel cover illustration “Boomer Cyborgs in Run Through the Jungle 2026.”

Pencil, pen-and-ink on 11 x 17″ Bristol board colorized in Photoshop for Graphic Novel back cover illustration “Army Regulars in Run Through the Jungle 2026.”