Joyce Clark Lewton

Joyce Clark Lewton, age 89 of West Branch, passed away peacefully on Friday, October 5, 2018 at home with Floyd and Wanda by her side. Joyce was born on September 18, 1929 to Harrison and Florence Clark in Detroit, MI. She has lived in West Branch since 1975, formerly of the Detroit area.

Joyce Clark Lewton ia a contemporary Michigan artist who is no ordinary observer of the people and objects around her. Lewton penetrates beyond the surface and reveals the secret truths concealed within her subjects. Her unique vision has been expressed in the areas of landscape, portraiture, and still life. Her current media include oils, pastels, water soluble crayons, and acrylics.

An art professional and teacher for many years, Lewton earned a B.A. in Art Education from Wayne State University in 1951. Later, she completed a Master’s Degree in Design/Crafts at the same institution. Lewton taught pottery, jewelry making, and design at Detroit’s Cass Technical High School before returning to her first love---painting---after retirement.

Lewton’s work is always strongly personal and evocative regardless of the subject on medium. “My paintings begin with visual stimulation-real or imagined.” Lewton says. “Then they grow in a seesaw fashion between action-reaction, experimentation and observation.”

Lewton has exhibited at a number of galleries throughout her career. Early on, her work was shown at W.S.U., the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Scarab Club, Arts Extended, and the Detroit Artist’s Market, in addition to her own Detroit pottery studio.

During her Florida years, she exhibited at the Manatee Council for the Arts, the Sarasota Art Association, the Manatee Art League, Long Boat Key Art Gallery, Florida Craftsmen Gallery, and the Art Forms Gallery.

Since her return to Michigan, she has exhibited at the Crooked Tree Art Gallery (Petoskey), the Detroit Artist’s Market, the Art Show at the Dog Show (Wichita, KS), the Jesse Besser Museum, the Margaret Harwell Art Museum (Poplar Bluff, MO), the Kirtland Warbler Festival, the West Branch Creative Art Association, Saginaw Charter State of the Arts, the Frame Shoppe, Bay City Studio 23, and the Saginaw Art Museum.

Joyce had a passion for animals, reading, and especially the West Branch Library. She still has exhibits at the West Branch Creative Arts Association.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Robert Lewton and brother, Harrison Clark Jr.