ISLAND DAYS Painting

Stephen Lucas (b. 1959, Los Angeles) creates unique, non figurative works that reference his spiritual experiences. While in New Orleans, at age 20, he apprenticed with printmaker Jerry Jeff Jennings, later and at age 23 he won the purchase award from Ventura College, California. In 1988 he apprenticed with painter Wesley E. Johnson and discovered his inner voice and the very personal abstract experience. He married Debra Algien in 1993 and became a full-time artist. His work has been featured in various films and gallery shows over the past 25 years. In 1998, a new dimension was added to my career portfolio when major motion picture studios and national television networks brought my art to film! As well, with hundreds of collectors from around the world, my audience is rapidly growing in an international market. It is not my thing to abstract the world around me. My challenge is to capture the “essence of life”, the unseen, without using words or identifiable objects. Because of my creative process, I believe when a person is moved by my paintings, it is a "purely spiritual" experience, a communion, between the viewer and the painting, and on a deeper level, myself. This experience is not limited or influenced by words, places or things. It is pure....beyond language, beyond differences, beyond dogma, beyond any and all association to the outside world. Therefore, what takes place is a private, personal conversation between the viewer and the painting, and I like to think of myself as the initiator of a profound natural experience of self-exploration. That's where Truth is found. It has been one of my greatest pleasures in life to learn that sometimes, what a person experiences when viewing my art is a place deep within themselves, a place they have longed to tap into, and my painting was the key to helping them unlock it. I hope that is what people recognize and what they appreciate about my art. The colors and composition come from my subconscious connection to my intuitive vision (it's a spiritual thing), my best work always comes from that part of me. Artists are taught technique and how to see and draw the figurative world, but expression is from the soul and the soul longs for freedom. In expression there are no rules, but there IS truth, and truth can only be found deep within each and every one of us. My art is an expression of the truth about me, my relationship with the Creator and to everyone and everything around me.