As an avid hiker, horse person, and fly fisherman, I'm happiest when I'm in the back country. I have personal experience with every subject I paint. These places I travel are usually wilderness lands that also need conservation. The end goal of my work is not realism but a narrative transcendence to help bring awareness to these fragile lands. I want my audience to pause long enough to feel the sun, cold air, and gentle wind and to feel its potential turbulence. I purposely break image components into shapes, color layering, and rhythm through directional brushstrokes to simultaneously show stillness and movement—the land may be peaceful but also alive. DH Lawrence once said, "Different places on the face of the earth have different vibrations, different polarities with different states. Call it what you like, but the spirit of place is a great reality." ~Lisa Gilley ___________
Lisa Gilley is a Washington state native and currently resides on her Marrowstone Island farm on the Olympic Peninsula. In the last decade, Lisa began focusing her work on National Parks and Monuments, wilderness areas, and lands seeking protection under different Wilderness Acts to bring awareness to their fragile existence and works on an ongoing basis with many wilderness, river and salmon protective outlets.
In 2015, Lisa was honored by Artist Trust of Washington with a Grant for Artist (GAP) award for her paintings documenting the Snake River and its surrounding tributaries. Lisa was also awarded Art Residencies by Grand Canyon National Park (2016), Zion National Park (2017), and Capitol Reef National Park (2019).
Lisa Gilley’s paintings are in many prestigious private collections around the United States, Canada, and Europe and many public collections, including the Paul G. Allen Collection, Microsoft Art Collection, Four Seasons Hotel (Seattle), Zion and Capitol Reef National Parks, Swedish Medical Center, Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Hospitals, PeaceHealth Medical Centers, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Care Center, the University of Washington, People’s Bank of Washington, and Bainbridge Island Museum of Art.
Woodside Braseth Gallery in Seattle Washington represents Lisa.
