Ernest J. Schweit
I love making beautiful images of the natural world that stir the emotions and take your breath away.
My photos hang in private collections, have been featured in individual and group shows and purchased for the private collection of the College of Lake County (Ill.)
I take the random elements nature provides, arrange them, and work with them until they correspond to my personal vision.
I feel connected to the mountains, the prairies, the deserts, even the flowers and the cactus. I try to communicate that connection with every image I make.
I feel a presence in my natural surroundings, as if all I see is the creation of something bigger, more powerful and more knowing, than myself.
The soft light after a storm, the streaks of pink at sunrise, a saguaro that blooms in the heat of the desert, none of that happens by accident; they are the creation of something much bigger than myself.
That “something” is what moves me.
Like a painter with a brush, my work starts with a camera. It is shaped and molded by light, texture, contrast and shape, mixed by technology and vision until it becomes real, a photographic print.
My work is inspired by many photographers: from the early masters like Edward Weston and Ansel Adams, to more contemporary artists like Sam Abel, Nigel Danson, David Plowden and, the first photographer I ever met, my own father, Paul.
I carry them with every image I make.
"I take the random elements provided by nature, arrange them in the frame of the camera, and mold them into my personal vision of the world."
What others are saying about his work:
Shows, art fairs, exhibitions
A Hint of Red-The Color of Love, the Antioch Fine Arts Foundation, 2026
Respite, 30 images at the robert T. Wright Gallery, Grayslake, Ill., June 2025.
Beloit Art Center, Beloit Wisc., annual Juried Photo Show: award winner, Top 5, 2025
Wall Flowers, Blue Moon Gallery, Grayslake, Ill., 2025
The View, The Arts Center of Highland Park, Ill., 2025
Recent Works, Robert T. Wright Gallery, Grayslake, Ill., 2024
Member Show, Robert T. Wright Gallery, Grayslake, Ill., 2024, 2026
Lake County Art League, 90th Anniversary Show, Waukegan, Ill., 2024
Art in Architecture/College of Lake County, Waukegan, 2024
Resident Art Show, Positive Space Studios, Mundelein, Ill., , 2024
Click, The Arts Center of Highland Park, Ill., 2024
Black Lung Brewery, Round Lake Beach, Ill., 2023
Lake County Art League at Antioch, Ill., Fine Arts Foundation, 2023, 2024
Grayslake Arts Alliance, Positive Art-titudes, Mundelein, Ill., 2024
Lure of the Local, Mundelein, Ill., 2023, 2025
Tonality Brewing Co., Mundelein, 2023
Art in the Shire, Long Grove, Ill., 2022, 2022, 2023
Community Art Fair, Grayslake, Ill., 2023
”Joyeux!, Artists on the Bluff, 2021
ArtPop Gallery, Artist on the Bluff, Ill., 2021
Fourth Friday,Starline Gallery, Harvard,Ill, Lake County Art Guild, 2021, 2022
Fourth Friday, Starline Gallery, Harvard, Ill.,Artists on the Bluff, 2021
Fourth Friday, Starline Gallery, Harvard, Ill., Grayslake Arts Alliance, 2021
Seeing Red, Blue Moon Gallery, Grayslake, Ill., 2021
Member Show, Robert T. Wright Gallery, College of Lake County, Grayslake, Ill., 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020
Recent Works, Robert T. Wright Gallery, College of Lake County, Grayslake, Ill., 2021, 2020, 2024
Grayslake Arts Festival and Wine Tasting, Grayslake, Ill., 2018, 2019, 2021
Festival of the Arts, Adler Cultural Center, Libertyville., Ill., 2018, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2024
Featured in:
Chicago Tribune, May 24, 2020:
"Arts Alliance Founder Focuses on new ways to approach photography.
Waukegan News Sun: 8, 2020
"Lens on landscapes"
