Stanley Cornwell Lewis

Stanley Cornwell Lewis MBE (born December 18 1905) is a Welsh portrait painter and illustrator.

Lewis studied at the Newport School of Art in Wales from 1923 to 1926. He was then awarded a place at the Royal College of Art where he studied from 1926 until 1930. In 1930 he won second prize in the Rome Scholarship Awards in Mural Painting, and later that year returned home to take up the post of Painting Master at Newport School of Art. In 1939 war was declared and he was called up in 1941 for initial training in North Wales and joined the Searchlight Regiment of the Gloucester Regiment in Somerset. After the war Stanley Lewis became Principal of Carmarthen School of Art where he taught until his retirement in 1967. Stanley Lewis, together with his wife, Minnie Lewis, are the author and illustrator of the book "Laugharne and Dylan Thomas", about their friend and neighbour, Dylan Thomas. With Michael Ayrton and Enzo Piazzotta he held a three-man show at the Bruton Gallery.

His painting "The Welsh Molecatcher" (1937) was voted the most popular picture at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition that year. It hangs today at the Newport Museum and Art Gallery in Wales. His wartime painting of "The Attack on the Battleship, Turpitz", is now at the Fleet Air Arm Museum at Yeovilton, Somerset. Stanley Lewis exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1932 and 1961:

1932 - Portrait of Valerie Portrait of Edith1936 - Portrait of a Ploughman1937 - The Welsh Mole Catcher - Portrait of Mrs Kirkley1939 - Portrait of a Girl with a Rose1940 - The Croesyceilliog Blacksmiths - The Doll1955 - The Welsh Dresser1961 - Horsepool Road, Laugharne In 2006 Stanley Lewis was awarded the MBE for services to the arts, and he is currently working on an illustrated book of his wartime experiences.

Newport Museum link: www.wartimenewport.virtuallyhere.co.uk/