The half-century art career of Ted Lewis

“It was funny back then because people in Orange, they knew Ted Lewis the football player, but Ted Lewis the painter, that was on the odd side,” recalls Ted Lewis from the comfortable, well-used art studio at his home halfway between Orange and Ophir.

“They had the idea that because you painted, you can't be a rough, silly footballer who goes out and gets his head bashed in, and if you are a painter, you'd be soft. Couldn't be the same person.”

Ted, who is certainly not silly and even at 67 years of age looks quite capable of strapping on the boots if he had a mind to, is telling of the time in his early 20s when his coach asked him to choose between football and his career as an artist.

“I thought that's a silly thing to say; one's making me a living, the other one's only good for a few more years,” says Ted, who simply stepped down to reserve grade and continued to paint.

Ted’s love of art began at a young age and he recalls times he had a notebook flung out the schoolroom window for drawing in class when he should have been doing something else. It was an interest fostered by his mother and grandmother, along with a love of the Australian bush, which for Ted, was literally at his doorstep.

“We grew up on the edge of Orange. Orange pretty much ended then at Phillips Street and we were halfway up the hill to where those two tanks would be. My grandmother had a five-acre block there, and we lived there with this beautiful view of Mount Canobolas,” says Ted.

Ted’s father had left when he was young, and so he, his two brothers, and his sister grew up living with his mother and grandmother on their small block overlooking Orange.

The family also loved to explore the surrounding bush and among Ted’s extensive photo collection are snaps of family outings along Summer Hill Creek and the Mullion Ranges.

Ted was drawn to the bush and it soon became the focus of his art.

“I just like landscapes,” says Ted, shrugging. “I live where we live here and even when I was out on my L-Plates, we would stop and take photos of gum trees and the country. I just like gum trees and so it was always a thing for me to do, to go look at the trees.”

Ted’s artistic talent was recognised by his Orange High School art teacher, who encouraged him to pursue it, despite his mother’s initial wish for him to study commerce.

“Mum wanted me to do commerce and maybe be an accountant because I was good at maths, but the art teacher approached her and said, I had to do art, which I was happy with. So I did art as an elective in second form and I stayed with that right through,” says Ted.

Most of Ted’s painting during those years was done in front of the television, he says, sitting on the lounge room floor surrounded by paint tubes at an old tech-drawing easel. 

His work found a market at his mother’s workplace, where they were sold to help keep him in art supplies.

“Mum used to sell them when she worked at the council. A couple of dollars a painting or whatever. And it was handy because that just bought the paints, so it pretty much paid for itself as I went along,” he says.

“And it kept you going, kept encouraging you. It worked well for me.” 

Ted’s HSC major work was selected for a state-wide exhibition and upon leaving school, he sold 50 of 53 artworks at his first-ever exhibition at Orange’s Hesley Gallery.