Clayton Lewis is an artist from Michigan who studied painting at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts (BFA 1982) and at Parsons School of Design in New York (MFA 1985). His favorite subjects include seaside and forest landscapes, and urban scenes.

From 2001-2023, Lewis was Curator of Graphic Materials at the William L. Clements Library at the University of Michigan where he assisted scholars, did research and produced exhibits related to American history and visual culture. His areas of particular expertise include caricature, the representation of historic events, and early American photography.

For me, the joy in painting is as much about process as result. Most of my paintings are landscapes and cityscapes. The subjects of New York and Detroit have been favorites for a long time as these cities are both particularly expressive of our societal values and visually compelling.