Mark Friday-Lewis Art

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Blue Ash, OH
Mark Friday-Lewis Art

Welcome to Mark Lewis Art! I seek to capture the essence of a moment — the way a place feels, the quiet pulse beneath its surface.

My work is driven by a search for connection, between what is seen and what is felt, between discipline and discovery.

08/29/2026

I keep noticing this turn on a local hiking trail—the way the sunlight cuts across the path and breaks the trees into layers of light and shadow.

This 8 × 10 inch oil study was about simplifying that moment into big shapes rather than describing individual trees. I focused on overlapping forms, shifts in color temperature, and reducing contrast as the landscape recedes to create a sense of depth.

It was painted as a study, not something I intended to push toward a polished finish. Sometimes the point is simply to stop, look closely, and figure out what made a familiar place catch your attention.

08/08/2026

Spent the day in Cleveland at the Urban Sketcher Ohio Regional Summit. I took a great workshop by Jenny Jing Zhang

Great day.

08/07/2026

These portraits begin without a plan for who they will become. I follow the marks, distortions, and shifts in color until a face—and something psychological—starts to emerge.

What interests me is that moment when the painting seems to develop a presence of its own, something discovered through the process rather than consciously designed.

08/04/2026

For the past several months I've been exploring abstraction through the figure. Alongside that work, I've been developing another body of paintings built from geometry, transparency, and layered spatial relationships.

Rather than beginning with the human form, these pieces start with structure. Rectangles become frames, boundaries, windows, and places where one painted moment overlaps another. As layers accumulate, they begin to suggest spaces that feel remembered more than observed.

I'm still discovering where this direction leads, which is exactly why I'm continuing to make them. Not every path needs to arrive at a destination before it's worth following. Sometimes the process of building a visual language is the work.

I'd love to hear which piece resonates with you most and why.

08/03/2026

The world we experience is only one version of reality. Beneath it are fragments of memory, perception, and subconscious associations that shape how we understand ourselves.

This painting explores those layered spaces. The overlapping frames suggest pockets of reality—moments that are isolated, remembered, or imagined. They also act as narrative devices, constructing identities that shift depending on which frame we choose to inhabit. What remains outside the frame can be just as important as what is contained within it.

I'm increasingly interested in using abstraction to explore these psychological landscapes rather than depict the visible world. The process becomes less about describing an object and more about uncovering the structures that exist beneath conscious thought.

07/31/2026

The first time I pulled a lithograph print from the press, I understood why people become obsessed with this medium.

There's something incredibly satisfying about the process. Drawing on stone, preparing it through the chemical stages, inking, wiping, and finally watching the image emerge on paper. Every print is the result of patience and craft.

This edition was created during a lithography class at Manifest Center for the Visual Arts. I ended up pulling 15 prints, including two proofs, and I'm already looking forward to getting back into the print studio. alyssa baker is am amazing teacher, her love of the craft is contagious.

It's exciting to add another medium to my artistic practice. I have a feeling this won't be my last lithograph.

Manifest Drawing Center

07/30/2026

Some paintings ask to be understood. Others ask to be looked at.

I wanted this one to reward slowing down. The longer I spent with it, the more relationships between the shapes began to reveal themselves. That's the kind of experience I hope survives when someone else stands in front of it.

Mixed media on paper, 9 × 12 inches.

07/29/2026

I've been experimenting with a synthetic, non-absorbent painting surface lately. It's an interesting material because nothing really soaks in—paint and mediums stay on the surface, which opens up a lot of possibilities.

With acrylic, I can wipe passages away before they fully dry, revealing earlier layers or creating soft transitions that would be difficult on traditional paper. It also accepts charcoal, Conté, China marker, and water-soluble crayons surprisingly well. I've been exploring transparent layers, subtractive marks, and letting different materials interact in ways they normally wouldn't.

I've heard it works well with oil paint too, but I haven't taken that step yet.

This portrait is one of those ongoing experiments. I'm at the point where I'm deciding whether it's finished as it is or whether there's another layer waiting to be discovered. Sometimes knowing when to stop is the hardest part.

07/28/2026

Some forms begin to resemble something familiar, while others resist being named.

As I worked on this painting, I found myself thinking about seeds, pods, and cells dividing—small beginnings full of possibility. At the same time, the shapes started to suggest human figures, not as individuals, but as forms defined by their relationship to one another. Separate, yet connected.

I enjoy when abstraction allows these ideas to exist at the same time without choosing a single answer. The painting becomes less about identifying an object and more about recognizing a feeling.

12 × 9 inches
Acrylic on paper

What emerged for you first—the organic forms, the figures, or something entirely different?

07/21/2026

The dancer.

This painting began with broad gestures and layers of transparent color. As the marks accumulated, a human form gradually emerged—not through careful drawing, but through relationships between shape, value, and movement. I find that approach allows the painting to reveal something I couldn't have planned from the start.

9 × 12 inches
Acrylic on paper

Address

Blue Ash, OH

Website

https://markfridaylewis.com/

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