Living and painting in her
ranch-house studio near beautiful Sedona, AZ, provides artist Lisa
Danielle with both subject and inspiration for her renditions of life
and culture of the American West. Proximity to Indian lands,
prehistoric ruins, and working ranches have, for the last 17 years,
given Lisa an intimate knowledge of Native American and cowboy life
so well portrayed in great detail in her paintings.
Danielle's mission has always been to have her paintings tell stories of universal human struggles, traditions, prosperity, and spirituality that transcend time and place. And so her latest works encompass objects and traditions of other cultures in lands that seem far away, but actually reflect the migration of people and ideas, and the subsequent harmony of what we all intuitively recognize as "beauty".
With all their technical excellence, Danielle's paintings are lovely, and have found homes in museum collections and humble living rooms alike, but for those who look deeper, a wealth of meaning awaits, and often her trademark - a star for some, perhaps a cross; a glowing ember, symbolic of that god given spark we all share. Says Lisa of her fascination with this creative connection: "It's a study of us all really, and worth a lifetime of exploring in paint.
To achieve the rich color and varied textures in her paintings Lisa has chosen a time consuming technique of dry brushing layer upon layer of Windsor Newton watercolor. She does not use any extenders or opaque pigment, just layer upon layer to build up opacity, and then seals the painting with a spray fixative.