L I S A E G E L I
Lisa Egeli’s paintings are moving and sophisticated
portrayals of the people and places we treasure. Her portraits and landscapes,
in oil and pastel, have been featured in many exhibits and permanent collections
since her professional career was launched in 1988, when she graduated
from the American Academy of Art in Chicago.
Her life as a painter, however, began long before, growing up a third
generation artist in a family of artists, and learning her earliest skills
from her father, portrait and maritime painter Peter Egeli. Her early
training led her to a series of commissioned portraits and paintings of
private homes, and then on to her formal art training in Chicago, to continue
developing her gift for representational art in diverse media.
Since then Lisa’s work has taken her all over the world, in pursuit
of landscapes. In 1991 she set out on a nine month painting tour that
took her to Europe, Southeast Asia, China, and New Zealand. “Views
From Around the World,” an exhibition of documentary drawings and
paintings, opened on her return. Her work has been recognized in a variety
of regional and national events, including the nationwide Art for the
Parks competition’s “100 Best Paintings” in 1996 and
2003 and the Oil Painters of America Annual National Juried Exhibition
in 2004. In 1998, Lisa traveled to Alaska to paint and sketch in preparation
for her 1999 exhibit, “Nature’s Moods,” and in 2001
she made two painting trips to Italy. The State of Georgia Department
of Natural Resources selected her for their Artist’s Residency on
Sapelo Island in April 2003, then again for Ossabaw Island in November
2003. Lisa was selected to participate in the plein air painting events
“Paint Annapolis” in 2005, and “Plein Air Easton”
in 2006 and 2007. Her paintings won awards in both events. A solo show
in Baltimore in late 2007 exhibited paintings from travels in east Africa,
the Everglades of Florida, and her home state of Maryland.
Lisa continues to paint portraits and landscapes for a wide range of clients,
working from both her studio in Baltimore and her studio at home in southern
Maryland. Her goal, whether portraying the wilds of Alaska, the endangered
mountain gorillas of Uganda, or the haunting marshes of Maryland’s
Eastern Shore, is to capture a sense of place, and also capture that combination
of awe and intimacy that is the essence of an encounter with nature.
