Lewis J.("Jerry") Powers
Born Springfield, Mass., 1945

After graduating from Philips Exeter and Yale ('67), where I majored in English, I went on to art school. At Yale, I had taken a figure-drawing course under Dean Keller, who later recommended that I attend the Hartford Art School, which had become part of the University of Hartford. I earned a BFA in painting, studying under Paul Zimmerman and Rudolph Zallinger, among others, and began teaching.

For almost thirty years I worked as an art teacher and, eventually, department head at the Westminster School in Simsbury, CT. During those years my own studio work was confined to school vacation periods. I was reluctant to take time to market my work because that would cut into the limited time I had for painting. By the year 2000, my work at Westminster had become increasingly involved with photography and administration in a large (and very vital) department. I felt that my own painting was in danger of becoming a "hobby". With our children successfully launched in the world of grown-up employment (the Army & Wall Street), I realized that now, if ever, was the chance to see what I could do if I devoted myself full-time to painting.

So, since the summer of 2000, Linda and I have been living our dream life as year-round residents of Block Island, and I have begun a new career as a full-time artist. So far I've exhibited work with Block Island's Spring Street Gallery, the South Kingston (RI) Art Association, the Wickford (RI) Art Association, the Springfield (MA) Art League, the Academic Artists Association and the Mind's Island group show at Pen & Brush Gallery, NYC. Since 2002 I have been awarded an Honorable Mention, a Second Place, a First Place and a Third Place in shows at the Wickford Art Association. Also, I was recently awarded the Dr. Irving Myer Memorial Award in the Springfield Art League's Northeast Juried Exhibition at the Springfield Art Museum.