Lewis Bryden Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Bryden has painted a series he calls ‘’Boardwalk Idyll’’ that spans over 30 years of work. The series, which explores the eternal summer of adolescence, was exhibited at the Brooklyn Public Library in 2004 and later at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Massachusetts. In a talk about this series, he states “Other artists before me have used Coney Island, each in his own way. I started studying the work of Reginald Marsh, David Levine, and the photographer Bruce Davidson. My own particular inspiration was a fascination with people in public places who are acting out their private dramas.”

In 2002, the US Treasury Department sanctioned Bryden’s visit to Cuba on an artistic mission. He spent five days there and completed a series of “plein air” paintings.

Bryden began visiting Mexico annually in 1993. During his visits, he does informal portraits and sketches in the public squares capturing plein air impressions of the moment. In 1994, he put his work together into a series, “Tierra Insolita” which was formally presented in the exhibition at the Galleria Ixcateopan in Acapulco in that same year.

It wasn’t until 1988, when Bryden moved to Massachusetts, that his dream of supporting himself as a professional artist became a reality. He continued to do architectural work but began selling more canvases as area art buyers discovered his paintings of local landscapes. “It’s a beautiful spot and people like to see things they know. That allowed me for the first time to sell enough to live on.”

Beginning early in his career, Bryden received numerous awards, such as the Silvermine Guild Award, first prize 1985 (Carolyn Lanchner, juror) and Mid Hudson Arts Competition 1985, second prize (Barbara Haskell, juror). In 2009 the Springfield Art Museums acquired two Bryden landscapes — “The Beginning of the Day” and “The End of The Day.”

From an early age, Bryden knew he wanted to be an artist. When he was nine years old, he won second place in a statewide children’s art competition. That same year he sold a watercolor out of a children’s exhibit at the Norton Museum of Fine Art in West Palm Beach, Florida. “That sealed it for me,” Bryden remembers. He graduated from Yale (B.A.1966) and from Graduate School of Design at Harvard (M.A. 1970). While making a living as an architectural renderer, Bryden continued to develop his technique as an artist by going to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City where he spent hours copying masterpieces.

Lewis Bryden (born 1944) is an artist known for naturalistic landscapes – mainly of the Connecticut River valley. He also paints genre scenes and makes realism sculptures. Bryden’s plein air paintings include Mexico, Cuba, Alaska, Russia, New York City and the American West. He has exhibited since 1973 at over 20 solo exhibitions and many group shows. Formally trained as an architect, Bryden is self-taught in the fine arts. His style is informed by his interest in rendering different kinds of light. Curator Martha Hoppin describes Bryden’s method: “He paints the light in space, and then fills the space with nature.”