Meet Lisa Skyheart Marshall

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa Skyheart Marshall a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa Skyheart, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
I have worked for many years as an artist. I have changed mediums a couple of times and have spent many hours working at my craft. When I traveled, I would take little boards with me and work on scenes in watercolor and ink. During the Covid time when we had to keep to ourselves, I found a lot of inspiration while on walks around my neighborhood from my neighbors gardens which were busting out in a profusion of color. At that time I switched from working in acrylic to working in watercolor and ink on larger boards.
I feel like the proverbial “10,000 hours” were achieved by me during that time. The right medium and nearly endless hours of work came together and allowed me to express my love of nature in my paintings of plants and birds, flowers and insects.
I had tried to accomplish that with acrylic paint, but it wasn’t the right medium for the amount of detail I want to do to show what I see when I observe nature.
After many years of working at painting I feel confident about what I am making, I feel like I have reached a level of skill in what I do. When I show my work, I am proud of it.
So currently I am continuing in this series of work of botanicals, but I also add funny little things like old keys, puzzle pieces, or other items I find in nature which are a bit of the human world encroaching on that natural world. The sort of things that may be part of a garden or the kinds of things that go missing.
My color is pretty vivid, and the backgrounds are now painted with acrylic. I put a lot of thought into color combinations and the background ties it all together, while giving a rest to the eye in contrast to the highly detailed areas of the artwork.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Growing up, I spent a lot of time out in nature here in Ojai where I still live. I was able to freely wander around in the hills of Ojai and I believe this has formed the artist I am today. Now I find it meditative to spend time with plants and birds, making myself still and really seeing nature.

In this way I am able to be close to birds and lizards without startling them. I think that taking time to slow down and observe allows me to see the little worlds contained in a garden that we all pass by daily without thinking much about it.

I am constantly practicing this way of being, it’s ingrained in me. So, when you see a painting of mine, this is the process that goes into it, before the drawing and painting begin in my loft studio.

I start a painting with a pencil drawing that can take 2-3 days to complete. From there I begin to paint and layer color until I get what I want. Along the way I will add things, so it changes some from the original drawing and idea. I work on a board that has a thin clay coating, so when complete, I varnish it and can frame it without glass.

Recently I have made a sort of rogue’s gallery of paintings starting with a crow. After that I did a stylized fox and foxglove painting and finally a rooster painting.

The crow painting, “Theory of Reciprocity”, was inspired by stories I read and heard about crows giving gifts to people who show them kindness. All the funny little things a crow might find, and gift are shown with him in that painting.

The fox is based on the local gray fox in Ojai. It’s titled “The Ominivore”, and I have included some of the fox’s menu items. I met the rooster while in the Italian countryside last May, so the hills of Chianti are behind him. He was probably 3x the size of normal rooster and his name is Luigi.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I believe that my exposure to nature as a child was instrumental in the art and person I am today. My father also supplied me with good quality art supplies and let me go at it. I was always drawing with a pencil. Later I was able to study with some great art teachers even though I did not get a degree in art, I had a solid foundation from them. I did this when my three children were quite small, and I was able to get away a few hours a week to study art.
I believe that being determined to keep going and doing my thing as an artist finally added up to work that I feel proud of today and that collectors respond to now.
It can be challenging to work as an artist and put in enough time in the studio. Others find it easy to pull you away from your work because it might seem like play to them, what artists do. It’s essential to block out the studio time, to do your work, to put your unique expression out in the world.
Being true to myself, my subject matter and my great desire to do my work are what motivate me.

What book has played an important role in your development and what were a few of the most valuable or impactful nuggets of wisdom?
I would say that the illustrations in books have really been nuggets of inspiration.

The illustrators who have influenced and inspired me are Beatrix Potter, Maxfield Parrish, Maurice Sendak, and NC Wyeth among others. My work has been compared to illustrations, and that’s probably why.

I like a strong design element in my compositions. I feel that each of my paintings is illustrating its own story and while I am not interested in being a book illustrator, I like the idea of people seeing a story in my work because there is always a back story there.

It’s never just flowers, it’s more than that.

The best part is when a collector visits my studio and immediately identifies something in a painting that relates to their own life or experience as a human.

Open Studio events:
Saturday, July 13, 2024, the Ojai Studio Artists welcome visitors to one neighborhood of their artists’ studios from 10-5
October 5, 6 and 7 is the Ojai Studio Artist’s 3 day studio tour, where many fine artists open their studios to visitors.
Visit ojaistudioartists.org for more information.
I have a painting in the Santa Paula Art Show: “Luigi, Il Bello Gallo di Chianti” is part of the Art About Agriculture exhibit through March 3. santapaulaartmuseum.org

I have a painting titled “Lotus Iris Hummingbird” at the Beatrice Wood Arts Center in Ojai, January 6-March 2, 2024, with an opening reception January 6.
For more information go to beatricewood.com

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Images are made from my own paintings by Image Source, Ventura and are the property of me. Image of me in Arles, France by M. Marshall

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