His father, was Val Lewton, his mother, Ruth Knapp, was a painter and teacher of autistic children. Lewton painted from a young age. On a family trip to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, he discovered the work of Henri Matisse, an encounter that permanently influenced his artistic vision. In the early 1960s, Lewton lived in sout- hern California and taught art classesat theUniversity of California Riverside. During this period, he was inspired by the paintings of Roger Kuntz and the murals of José Clemente Orozco. In 1963, he reached out to his former Claremont professor, David Scott, then Assistant Director of the National Collection of Fine Arts, who encou- raged him to apply to the Smithsonian Institution. The result wasa cross-country move to the Washington, D.C. area, and two years later he was included in the Corcoran Gallery's annual group exhibition of local artists. In 1973, the Studio Gallery gave Lewton his first solo exhibition in D.C., "Val Lewton Is Dale City", a title derived from the Virginia suburb of Dale City. In 1985, The Corcoran's 1985 "Washington Show" included Lewton's large-scale painting H" Street Demolition", created the previous year. His 60-by- 100-foot"Airshaft Mural", painted in 1988, relies on a trompe loeil effect that gives the viewers the impression of seeing through aconcrete pylon built over I-395 to the U.S Capitol Building.