Lisa became an artist through immersion in a very creative family life. Her father Fritz Schaus was an integral part of the growing industrial design department at GE in Schenectady, New York until the mid 1970Õs. LisaÕs mother attended Pratt Institute and was an accomplished artist, excelling both at portraiture in pastel and costume design. Mari Kaestle, the artistÕs sister was a star designer for Muppets and Mattel, receiving many awards for her designs. She is an expressive mixed media and art doll creator at the Curley School in Ajo, Arizona. A younger brother, Joe, is a renowned engineer for GE and delights in sculpture of whimsy.
Lisa attended Bennington College in Vermont, and New York State University at Albany for fine arts, then moved to Carmel, California, and attended the Monterey Peninsula College for art history and the Defense Language Institute for Spanish language training. Her travels began with her husband, an oceanographer for the United States Navy. Lisa resided in Cartagena, Colombia for four years, painting and sketching from the tropical coastal plains to the Andes. Pt. Barrow, Alaska was her next home, and Lisa continued to paint in oil, and then explored the mediums of watercolor and pastel. She began her show career 1976 at the US Naval Research Laboratory at Barrow. Lisa then moved to the Washington, D.C. area where she continued watercolor studies, and began a career in professional picture framing. As a member of the Springfield Art Guild in Virginia, she exhibited in group shows at the Torpedo Factory Art Center, and area shows earning awards for her mixed media work. After moving to Montana in 1982, she continued her career in picture framing and participated in local group shows, and in galleries from Lake Tahoe to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Lisa attended workshops presented by Frank Webb, Charles Reid, John Pollack, and Joe Abbrescia.
The artist has taught classes privately, and through Flathead Valley Community College, Kalispell, Montana, in watercolor, pastel, mixed media, and collage. She has presented classes in watercolor and mixed media in rural schools through Montana Arts Council grants. In June of 2005 Lisa developed a week long workshop ÒDance into ArtÓ with Northwest Ballet CompanyÕs creator and previous director Carol Brannan. Action paintings were executed through dance movements to teach students the joy of interactive arts.
The mediums Lisa utilizes manifest many expressions of her pursuit to comprehend the intrinsic beauty of the natural world. Of course passions, moods, and conceptual process motivate the artistÕs wide range of styles. She has explored a variety of traditional mediums for over thirty years as a learning procedure, and feels that each medium serves to convey her current state of growth and discovery. Collage, mixed media, and assemblage have been the artistÕs mediums to convey auto-biographical narrative works. These pieces remain mostly in LisaÕs private collection. It is most likely this medium will provide future challenges for LisaÕs work.
Lisa has received awards from her past associations with the Montana Watercolor Society and the national Professional Picture Framers Association. Her work was selected for the Montana GovernorÕs Mansion exhibit in 1996.
In 2000 she was selected by the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce to create a painting for the prestigious Great Chief Award. Lisa has been a devoted contributor in Montana to several charities, and the annual auctions that benefit the Yellowstone Art Museum, The Hockaday Museum of Art, Central School Museum, Big Brothers and Sisters, ALERT, Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, CASA, Samaritan and Hope Houses, The Winter Classic, the Montana Land Reliance, and Human Therapy on Horseback. She was selected to be part of a five-member panel to select the artists in residence for Glacier International Park 2003 and 2004.
Lisa is a member of the Watercolor Society of Oregon and lives in Lake Oswego. ÒAnd then there is inspiration. Where did it come from? Mostly from the excitement of living. I get it from the diversity of a tree or the ripple of the sea, a bit of poetry, the skirting of a dolphin breaking still water and moving toward meÉanything that quickens you to the instantÉÓ
© Willow Wind Studio - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Lisa Schaus
All images and content on this website are the sole property of Willow Wind Studio and Lisa S. Schaus. Any copying, duplication and\or distribution of images or content from this website with out the express written permission of the artist or Willow Wind Studio is a violation of copyright law.