Art Glass & Sculpture Restorations
St. Matthew Lutheran Church ELCA - Beaverton, Oregon - 2018
Holy Cross Catholic Church - Portland, Oregon - 2018
Christ The King Catholic Church - Milwaukie, Oregon 2018
St. Mary - Star of the Sea Catholic Parish - Astoria, Oregon - 2010-12
Concordia University Library - Portland, Oregon - 2010
Zion Lutheran Church MS - Portland, Oregon -2008
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church - Jordan, Oregon - 1994
St. Matthew Lutheran Church ELCA - Beaverton, Oregon - 2018
Holy Cross Catholic Church - Portland, Oregon - 2018
Christ The King Catholic Church - Milwaukie, Oregon 2018
St. Mary - Star of the Sea Catholic Parish - Astoria, Oregon - 2010-12
Concordia University Library - Portland, Oregon - 2010
Zion Lutheran Church MS - Portland, Oregon -2008
Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church - Jordan, Oregon - 1994
St. Matthew Lutheran Church ELCA, Beaverton, Oregon
Ernst Schwidder, Liturgical Artist & Sculptor & Pietro Belluschi, Design Architect, AIA
Main Entrance Copper Doors ca.1984
Ernst Schwidder, Liturgical Artist & Sculptor & Pietro Belluschi, Design Architect, AIA
Main Entrance Copper Doors ca.1984
As Liturgical Artist and Design Director working with churches and hospitals for over two decades, I am often called upon to make old things new again. Recently I was honored to have the opportunity to restore the hammered copper doors at St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Beaverton, Oregon. These doors are the creation of late Liturgical Artist and Sculptor Ernst Schwidder (1931-1998) and the building’s world-renowned Architect, the late Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994).
Judeo-Christian art is rich in signs and symbols that enhance our worship experience. Schwidder’s sculptures grace the worship space and the outer courtyard at St. Matthew’s with both power and tenderness. And so it is with the embossed copper doors at the church’s entrance. They announce the coming of Christ and invite us to come in and worship Him. However, over 30-plus years these doors had darkened to a dreary dark brown, nearly obscuring the joyful messages and graphics. My challenge was to restore these doors to their former brilliance.
As I worked on the doors, it was a personal blessing to see the graphics and the Bible quotes emerge under my hands, from muted to bright, from dark quiet to celebrational! The Schwidder Door Restoration Project is now complete. It is my prayer that St. Matthew’s legacy of art will touch both present and future generations as it invites them to come worship our Lord, the bright morning star!
Judeo-Christian art is rich in signs and symbols that enhance our worship experience. Schwidder’s sculptures grace the worship space and the outer courtyard at St. Matthew’s with both power and tenderness. And so it is with the embossed copper doors at the church’s entrance. They announce the coming of Christ and invite us to come in and worship Him. However, over 30-plus years these doors had darkened to a dreary dark brown, nearly obscuring the joyful messages and graphics. My challenge was to restore these doors to their former brilliance.
As I worked on the doors, it was a personal blessing to see the graphics and the Bible quotes emerge under my hands, from muted to bright, from dark quiet to celebrational! The Schwidder Door Restoration Project is now complete. It is my prayer that St. Matthew’s legacy of art will touch both present and future generations as it invites them to come worship our Lord, the bright morning star!
Burnished Copper Clad Doors & Signage - Main Entrance Church Doors
Christ The King Catholic Church, Pietro Belluschi, AIA+ ca 1980 - Milwaukie, Oregon
Main Sanctuary - Crucifix Restoration
Holy Cross Catholic Church - Portland, Oregon
Holy Cross Catholic Church - Portland, Oregon
Selected Restoration Projects from the Greg Lewis Studios
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Greg Lewis and his team of assistants restore and repaint 14 antique, plaster-cast Stations of the Cross depicting the Passion of Christ. The full relief sculptures of St. Mary-Star of the Sea, Astoria, Oregon, originated in Mid-Nineteenth century, Pietrasanta, Italy. |
 Greg J. Lewis, Liturgical Artist & Design Director
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What People Are Saying...
Local Artist Restores Star of the Sea's Stations
Ed Langlois of the Catholic Sentinel - 3/18/10
When Greg Lewis climbed a ladder to work on figures representing the last hours of Jesus' life,
he could not help but pray. The Beaverton artist was asked to restore the large historic stations
of the cross at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Church in Astoria. After a year of patching, reinforcing and repainting, the 14 three-dimensional scenes have come alive again. The faithful are using them this Lent to remember the saving mystery of the Passion. Likely made in the 1890s, the stations were hung in the Astoria Church when it was dedicated in 1915. They had deteriorated and faded over the years. Parts were flaking off in large pieces.
Lewis says many Catholic communities in Oregon a century or more ago purchased plaster statues because of costs. The Astoria stations come from molds made in Italy that were sent to the United States, likely New York or Chicago. Lewis has identified similar stations made in 1873 for a church in San Antonio, Texas. "People here couldn't afford hand-carved marble from Italy," says Lewis, 63. "But this is not kitsch. It was artfully done."
Making the 90-mile trek to Astoria two or three days per week, Lewis used an epoxy plaster to rebuild the images and repaint them as they were. Parishioners did not want a reinterpretation; they wanted a link back to the founding of their community. "We take our history seriously," says Marcie Ewald, who led the restoration drive, which was paid for by the altar society. Worshipers have been praying at the stations each Friday of Lent during a gathering that includes a simple supper. The stations are dominant images here, three or four feet tall in a modest church.
In Astoria, Lewis has also overseen renovation of a long-stored statue of the Sacred Heart and an outdoor statue of Mary. Lewis, who teaches art at Concordia University in Portland, has created original art for many Catholic institutions in Oregon. He and his studio partners have created panels of the stations for Holy Trinity Church in Beaverton, stained glass for St. Philip Benizi Church in Redland, a holy oil holder for Sacred Heart Church in Newport and many projects for Providence Health and Services, from Hood River to Newberg. He restored a historic altar at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Jordan.
The son of an ad agency art director, Lewis has been an artist for 36 years, beginning work while in the Army in Germany.
Local Artist Restores Star of the Sea's Stations
Ed Langlois of the Catholic Sentinel - 3/18/10
When Greg Lewis climbed a ladder to work on figures representing the last hours of Jesus' life,
he could not help but pray. The Beaverton artist was asked to restore the large historic stations
of the cross at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Church in Astoria. After a year of patching, reinforcing and repainting, the 14 three-dimensional scenes have come alive again. The faithful are using them this Lent to remember the saving mystery of the Passion. Likely made in the 1890s, the stations were hung in the Astoria Church when it was dedicated in 1915. They had deteriorated and faded over the years. Parts were flaking off in large pieces.
Lewis says many Catholic communities in Oregon a century or more ago purchased plaster statues because of costs. The Astoria stations come from molds made in Italy that were sent to the United States, likely New York or Chicago. Lewis has identified similar stations made in 1873 for a church in San Antonio, Texas. "People here couldn't afford hand-carved marble from Italy," says Lewis, 63. "But this is not kitsch. It was artfully done."
Making the 90-mile trek to Astoria two or three days per week, Lewis used an epoxy plaster to rebuild the images and repaint them as they were. Parishioners did not want a reinterpretation; they wanted a link back to the founding of their community. "We take our history seriously," says Marcie Ewald, who led the restoration drive, which was paid for by the altar society. Worshipers have been praying at the stations each Friday of Lent during a gathering that includes a simple supper. The stations are dominant images here, three or four feet tall in a modest church.
In Astoria, Lewis has also overseen renovation of a long-stored statue of the Sacred Heart and an outdoor statue of Mary. Lewis, who teaches art at Concordia University in Portland, has created original art for many Catholic institutions in Oregon. He and his studio partners have created panels of the stations for Holy Trinity Church in Beaverton, stained glass for St. Philip Benizi Church in Redland, a holy oil holder for Sacred Heart Church in Newport and many projects for Providence Health and Services, from Hood River to Newberg. He restored a historic altar at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Jordan.
The son of an ad agency art director, Lewis has been an artist for 36 years, beginning work while in the Army in Germany.
To express your interest in a future Art Restoration project, I am happy to accept your call or email.
Phone Greg Lewis at 503-348-5176 or by email: greg@greglewisstudios.net.
You can also go to the GLS Contact Page of this GLS Website for your inquiries.
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