Bright colors, bright future

Palo Alto artist Lewis Silvers, who taught elementary school for many years, now commands $700 and more for his paintings

by Alison Davis

Anyone who's ever tried to teach second and third graders all day long can tell you how difficult a job it is. Anyone who's ever tried to create original artwork and then sell it can tell you how tough that is, too.

Lewis Silvers has done both.

Silvers, a retired Palo Alto elementary school teacher, has now been painting professionally for many years and has had several one-man shows throughout the country. A new exhibit is now underway. More than 50 of the prolific Palo Alto artist's works are on display at Van Kampen Framing Gallery at the Town and Country Village in Palo Alto. The exhibit runs through Nov. 30.

Now 68, Silvers never had time to devote much attention to painting while he was a teacher. He exhausted most of his creative energies on the important and exacting task of teaching Palo Alto's second and third graders.

Silvers still considers himself a teacher, and when he's not painting watercolors, pastels and gouaches (an opaque form of watercolor), he still volunteers at Juana Briones Elementary School in Palo Alto.

But these days, painting is most definitely his foremost passion.

Silvers says that although he considers teaching a "very creative profession," he always longed to be an artist.

"I've always painted, ever since I can remember," said Silvers, a native of New York City who attended several art schools before he became a teacher.

Born a twin--his brother, Willys Silvers, is a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania--art was one way to carve out his own identity, Silvers remembers.

"There was a tremendous loss of identity," Silvers says. "That's one of the reasons I became an artist."

Silvers' style is an unusual one, according to Van Kampen's owner, Jan Krane.

"He's unique in the fact that he has gone to a style that's not around anymore," says Krane. That style, Krane says, is similar to that of early Matisse and Gaugin.

Silvers describes himself as a "colorist," and indeed his works are a splash of bright hues. His approach is akin to that of the Fauvists, a turn-of-the-century art movement emphasizing bright colors and simple lines.

Fauvists, who considered Matisse their leader, lathered rich, vivid tones onto the impressionistic style characteristic of the times.

"(It's) more of an expression of how the painter feels at a gut level," Silvers explains.

Silvers works either at home or in the field, re-creating landscapes and still lifes. He's also starting to experiment with painting from photographs.

To avoid "getting into a rut," Silvers says he alternates from using acrylic paint to chalk pastels. What you get with pastels can be very similar to oils, crafting unique colors by blending and overlapping tones.

"The colors (I want) are not always out of the box," he says.

On a typical day, Silvers begins painting around 9 a.m., accompanied by his cat, Claudette, and the continuous presence of opera or jazz music piping throughout his home, where nearly every inch of wall space is occupied with his works.

After a few hours, he typically takes a break from painting and either volunteers or works out at a health spa. Later in the afternoon, he returns to painting.

Silvers' popularity is on the rise, says Krane, who singled out Silvers as a major talent and began stocking his gallery's walls with the artist's works.

"He's very collectible," Krane says. "People just fall in love with it."

Krane says it's not easy for local artists to get their work hung in a gallery. He typically gets at least one artist a week asking him to display his or her work.

Aside from feeling thrilled that complete strangers are laying down $700 or $800 for his paintings, Silvers sees painters as being an especially fortunate breed of artists. Unlike composers, for instance, who rely on someone else to play their work, painters have a much more immediate effect.

"Painters are very lucky," Silvers confesses. "It's a direct form of expression."

What: Lewis Silvers exhibit

Where: Van Kampen Framing Gallery, 151 Town & Country Village, Palo Alto

When: Through Nov. 30

Information: 329-8585

Back up to the Table of Contents Page