When Lisa Gilley is not in her art studio, she can be found paddling the Puget Sound, riding her horses, or hiking in the mountains. She has lived in Washington State her whole life, raised in the Skagit Valley farmlands and now living on her own farm on Marrowstone Island. You could say her hands are planted in the dirt and her feet in our tidelands.
Because of this passion for pristine landscapes, she has spent the last few years as an artist directing her attention toward public lands that need protection or continued protection. This series of paintings are from her recent travels between Central Alaska, Washington and Idaho. With each painting documenting a National Park or Monument, wilderness area or land that is currently seeking protection under different Wilderness Acts, all in an attempt to bring awareness to their fragile existence.
“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. This is why my paintings always come back to the land, no matter what. It is my hope to invite the viewer to experience stillness, just for a moment, just long enough to notice that which surrounds us.” –Lisa Gilley
