Clayton Scott Lewis (March 15, 1915 – September 15, 1995) was an American artist, known primarily for his work as an envelope artist and jewelry designer.

Life and career

Clayton Lewis began his professional life as a furniture designer in the late 1940s with his firm, Claywood Designs, which led to coverage in magazines such as Progressive Architecture and

Interiors ''Interiors'' is a 1978 American drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It stars Kristin Griffith, Mary Beth Hurt, Richard Jordan, Diane Keaton, E. G. Marshall, Geraldine Page, Maureen Stapleton, and Sam Waterston. Allen's first ...

. After a rare bone disease put him in the hospital, and with a young family to support, in 1950, he was hired as general manager of the

Herman Miller MillerKnoll, Inc., doing business as Herman Miller, is an American company that produces office furniture, equipment, and home furnishings. Its best known designs include the Aeron chair, Noguchi table, Marshmallow sofa, Mirra chair, and t ...

Furniture Company’s

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, whe ...

office. There he helped implement designs by

Charles Eames Charles Ormond Eames Jr. (June 17, 1907 – August 21, 1978) was an American designer, architect and filmmaker. In professional partnership with his wife Ray-Bernice Kaiser Eames, he made groundbreaking contributions in the fields of architect ...

Ray Eames Ray-Bernice Alexandra Kaiser Eames (née Kaiser; December 15, 1912 – August 21, 1988) was an American artist and designer who worked in a variety of media. In creative partnership with her husband, Charles Eames, and The Eames Office, she was ...

Isamu Noguchi was an American artist, furniture designer and Landscape architecture, landscape architect whose career spanned six decades from the 1920s. Known for his sculpture and public artworks, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Grah ...

, and George Nelson. After a tenure at Herman Miller, he left his position and moved his family to

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

, in 1953, to open up his own art studio. Following various shows and the subsequent breakup of his marriage in 1962, he moved first to Nevada City in 1963, and then to the Point Reyes Peninsula in 1964, where he designed a large collection of sculpture jewelry while working with Judy Perlman. After they disbanded their partnership of Perlman-Lewis in 1973, he continued working on his own as a sculptor, painter, and water colorist. Between 1980 and 1985, he produced over 1000 pieces of

mail art Mail art, also known as postal art and correspondence art, is an artistic movement centered on sending small-scale works through the mail, postal service. It developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School and ...

, mostly sent to his mother in the final years of her life. The envelopes have been shown in one-man and group shows in San Francisco, Pasadena, and Paris, among other locations. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

; Metropolitan Museum, New York;

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

; California Historical Society,

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

; Musée de La Poste,

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

; among others. For the last 31 years of his life he lived in a group of

Coast Miwok The Coast Miwok are an Indigenous people of California that were the second-largest tribe of the Miwok people. Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of present-day Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golde ...

Indian cottages at

Lairds Landing Point Reyes National Seashore is a park preserve located on the Point Reyes Peninsula in Marin County, California. As a national seashore, it is maintained by the US National Park Service as an important nature preserve. No other park in the ...

, on

Tomales Bay Tomales Bay is a long, narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean in Marin County in northern California in the United States. Geography Tomales Bay is approximately long and averages nearly wide, with relatively shallow depths averaging 18 ft, eff ...

, fifty miles north of

. There he built a spacious sculpting and painting studio with a substantial foundry to work in. In order to help sustain himself, he worked as a carpenter, fisherman, and boat builder, as well as an artist. Clayton Lewis was born in

Snoqualmie, Washington Snoqualmie ( ) is a city next to Snoqualmie Falls in King County, Washington, United States. It is east of Seattle. Snoqualmie is home to the Northwest Railway Museum. The population was 14,121 at the 2020 census. Etymology The name "Sno ...

and died at his home at Laird’s Landing, Point Reyes National Seashore, California. He was raised in Snoqualmie before moving to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

in 1936 to study at the Cornish School for the Arts (later

Cornish College of the Arts Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) was a Private college, private art school, art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914 by music teacher Nellie Cornish. The college's main campus is in the Denny Triangle, Seattle, Denny Triangle ...

). Between 1937 and 1940 he lived in San Francisco, where he studied at the

California School of Fine Arts San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

(later the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

). Clayton Lewis was married to Virginia Harding Lewis from 1942–1962. They had four children, including the composer,

Peter Scott Lewis Peter Scott Lewis (born August 31, 1953 in San Rafael, California) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Career Lewis's works have been commissioned and/or performed by the Rotterdam Philharmonic; Princeton Symphony Orchestra; ...

References

*The Envelope Art & Ardor of Clayton Lewis, Alyson Kuhn, Felt & Wire, May 3, 2010 *Lairds' Bohemian Decades, Jacoba Charles, Point Reyes Light, August 8, 2008 *Saving Clayton’s Place, Dan Fost, Marin Independent Journal (Feature Story), December 10, 1995 *Artist & Fisherman Clayton Lewis Dies, David Rolland, Point Reyes Light, September, 1995 *Un Americain a Paris: Clayton Lewis, rue Guenegaud, Catherine David, Le Nouvel Observatuer, December 26, 1985 *Les Envelopes De Clayton Lewis, Catherine David, Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, France, June 29, 1984 *The World of Clayton Lewis, J.S. Holliday, Magazine of the California Historical Society, San Francisco, CA (Feature Story), Fall, 1983

External links

Official Web SiteExplore Modern Art , Our Collection , Clayton Lewis , Bed
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Clayton 1915 births 1995 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters American modern painters Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Art Institute alumni Cornish College of the Arts alumni People from Snoqualmie, Washington 20th-century American male artists