Lane DeWitt Artist Biography

Lane DeWitt was born 1956 in Phoenix Arizona and raised in New Mexico. Early artistic influences were his mother Florene DeWitt a landscape artist working in oils and Pat DeWitt his aunt a prominent Arizona watercolorist. On weekends the family could be found exploring the pueblos of Northern New Mexico or visiting friends on the Navajo reservation. Summers were spent at Navajo Missions a charitable organization in Farmington New Mexico co-founded by Ralph Wells, Lane’s grandfather to raise orphaned Navajo children in a Christian environment. While his grandparents were working at the mission Lane would spend the day playing with the Navajo kids down by the Animas River behind the mission. Growing up alongside Native Americans instilled a deep respect for their culture and traditions. Art classes in high school in Albuquerque New Mexico studying painting and sculpture he found his calling, his passion in fine art. A neighbor near the family’s summer home outside of Durango Colorado the renowned western artist Oleg Stavrowsky became Lane’s friend and mentor. Lane was classically trained at the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts in Old Lyme Connecticut in painting, sculpture and anatomy with 3 additional years of private study under the school’s founder Elizabeth Gordon Chandler in portraiture. Married to wife Debra living in Santa Fe New Mexico. Weekends attending native gatherings sketching and photographing and during the week working on paintings in his studio. The nature of Lane’s work is portraiture and figurative work of Native Americans with a bold use of color and texture.

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