ARTIST STATEMENT & BIOGRAPHY
BIOGRAPHY
Lisa grew up on a farm in the 1960’s and 70’s southeast of Regina, Saskatchewan’s capital. Her family’s livelihood of growing crops and garden produce as well as raising livestock were instrumental in shaping her love of rural prairie living where the nearby communities were small and everyone knew their neighbour well. Lisa’s appreciation of the prairie landscape took strong roots in these years as she enjoyed the ever changing views from sunrise to sunset. She even rode her horse at night with the moon providing just enough light to see the road! She loved observing nature, the changing light through the day, and the changing seasons.
Lisa’s creative talents began in those early years through sewing in 4-H. To her great delight her parents bought her a Learn To Draw set by Jon Gnagy in middle years because of her affinity to doodle and draw frequently. This became a well used gift and was a great introduction to perspective in distance and creating dimensional effect as well as learning how to use basic tools in sketching.
After high school Lisa became a registered nurse and married her husband Kevin. Because of Kevin’s busyness back in the day when a family doctor did everything from office visits to emergency coverage and delivering babies Lisa took a break from nursing for about 15 years while raising their four children. Taking opportunity of being home more Lisa sewed voraciously and enjoyed some folk art painting. Eventually she took her recertification in nursing and worked both in the hospital and her husband’s office.
Art was something Lisa had long had an interest in and love for. Her great aunt Laurel Watters from down east was a landscape artist and her aunt on her mother’s side was very talented artistically with various mediums. Her girlfriend who also is ann antist encouraged her to paint and she began taking lessons on the fundamentals of oil painting by Juan Martinez who had moved back to Regina. Once Covid began and in person lessons were cancelled she began taking online mentorship classes through the Mastrius Art Community with mentors such as Dave Santillanes, Ned Mueller, Doug Swinton, and Crystal Beshara.
Lisa has been painting almost daily since the beginning of 2019 mainly in her home studio but also occasionally en plein air. She retired from nursing in 2021 which has allowed her even more time to paint.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Lisa is drawn to create a painting from her own life experience in which the moment creates an emotion of awe and wonder at the scene beheld. This may be inspired by varying subjects from people to landscape to interesting objects of beautiful colour, shape, or form.
Painting in a representational style, she loves the interplay of light and colour, sharp lines and soft lines, and warmth and coolness. While she occasionally paints in multimedia, oil remains her favourite medium, allowing her to paint thin transparent layers or thick expressive marks. She both adds and removes paint using brush, palette knife, paper towel, plastic card, and even her fingers sometimes scraping the paint back down.
“When I paint, I can be drawn into a place that lets me just be, where creation is so much bigger than myself. It reminds me of what an amazing Creator we have.”
Achievements of Note
Juried Acceptance as an Exhibiting Member with the Federation of Canadian Artists - Certificate awarded on October 18, 2024
Juried Art Show - Canadian Art Daily’s “Northern Visions, August 2024
Juried Art Show - Petite Art Show “Spring Has Sprung”, May 2024
Juried Art Show - Federation of Canadian Artists’ 2024 “Annual International Representational Exhibition”, March 2024.
Art Collaboration with pianist/composer Margin Alexander in New York City, July 2023 - “Manhattan Canvas Stories”.
Juried Art Show - Mastrius Art Show “Land to Sky”, March 2023.
WINNING AWARD - 1st Place Watermedia Category for “Red Mountain” - Scottsdale Artists School “Best & Brightest”
Juried Art Show - Scottsdale Artists School “Best & Brightest” - 2 paintings - February 2023.
Juried Art Show - Mastrius Art Show “100 Days of Summer”, August 2022.
Juried Art Show - Square Foot Show “Life’s A Beach” June 15 - 17, 2022.
Artist Residency - Banff Boutique Inn, Banff, Alberta, Canada, May 3 - 6, 2021