“As an avid hiker, horse person, and fly fisherman, I’m happiest when I’m in the backcountry. 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. D.H. 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.”
The images in this show represent the last decade of places traveled and loved and my 10th anniversary with Woodside Braseth Gallery. Like most people, I didn’t get to travel much during the pandemic, which put gathering new images on hold. It’s common for me to start a body of work from one area, and shortly after finishing only a few paintings, I’m off to another region. I recently told a friend, “So many great places to paint, so little time.” These last couple of years permitted me to slow down and revisit some of the landscapes whose stories I had yet to finish telling.” —Lisa Gilley