Lisa Beerntsen lives and paints (and also works in ceramics) with her husband, fellow artist, Tony Spiers in Graton, California. She received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1991, and her BFA from California College of Arts & Crafts in 1983. Lisa has been an adjunct art instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College for over 10 years, where she teaches classes in color, painting and drawing.
My work generally proceeds from one piece to the next in response to the art making process itself, more than it is driven by subject matter or narrative. That being said, my underlying inspiration generally goes back to nature, specifically to the botanical world as an endless source of fascination. Whether, they be plants in the wild, in my garden, or indoor plants – plant forms and parts, (whether abstracted or more realistic), frequently emerge. I’m interested also in the human desire to see and create pattern. I like to weave this regularity together with the more random organic qualities of plants. I’m interested in forms that recur different scales from the microscopic to the immense and the scientific building blocks of nature. I’d like for my paintings to have both a sense of mystery and beauty.
