Born in the California artist colony of La Jolla, “a wannabe cowgirl” raised on the western heroes and horses of Saturday matinees, and nurtured by artist parents, Lisa Danielle feels so privileged to be living out both dreams in legendary Sedona, Arizona.
An art major in the California State College program, and studies at the prestigious Art Center College of Design led to a brief commercial art job. Frustrated by the limitations, Lisa launched her fulltime fine-art career in 1971 and never looked back. Quality outdoor shows abounded and she built a following, but as her subjects became more purely western, she entered the Death Valley Days Show, among others. Her work was picked up by Leanin’ Tree Publishing Company and her images went international. Lisa served five years as president of Women Artists of the American West, and gave up most of her shows for galleries. On a delivery trip to a gallery in Sedona, Lisa knew she had found her true home.
Establishing her studio there 29 years ago has afforded access to fine gallery representation, major museums, sophisticated collections, traditionally run historic ranches, the vast reservations of the Navajo, Yavapai, and Hopi people, and endless horse trails that lead to prehistoric ruins complete with pot shards and petroglyphs.
Inspiration and subject matter abound, augmented by her studio stocked with boots, saddles, blankets, pottery, and a good reference library. Her resulting still-life paintings, with the emphasis on “life”, draw from across a room, then fairly glow with small intimate mysteries uncovered and revealed in great detail.
Lisa believes the commitment to authenticity in her “portraits” of what folks use and leave behind makes their stories “come alive, to those both living, or longing for, the true West.”
