About Lisa Gilley
“When I am not in the studio I am paddling the rivers of the Puget Sound, riding my horses, and hiking in the mountains. I have lived in Washington state my whole life. Raised in the Skagit Valley farmlands, I now have my own farm on Marrowstone Island. You could say my hands are planted in the dirt, my feet in our tidelands.
I have always been drawn to the narrative landscape paintings of the Early American Modernists, such as Rockwell Kent and Georgia O’Keeffe. Their work, as many other artists of their time, placed importance upon an individual’s ability to experience direct and powerful emotional experiences in nature.
Maybe this is why my paintings always seem to come back to the land, no matter what. I was raised on it; I live on it; and I want it to remain unscathed. There is a sign at the rim of the Grand Canyon which reads: One minute, don’t read, don’t talk, no photos, just look….and see. When I saw that sign I said, this is why I make my art.
