Walking at 6000’: Lisa Figueroa Artist Statement

Lisa Figueroa | Artist Statement

Walking at 6000’ is a body of work that reflects artist Lisa Figueroa’s practice of walking and observing Western Canada’s alpine and sub-alpine environments. Inspired by an experience viewing the work of Canadian modernist painter Gordon Smith, Lisa is motivated to experiment with scale and the relationships between abstraction, realism and the land.

Lisa’s painting process begins outdoors on foot. She carries a camera while hiking, and processes the landscape first through her senses, and then through the camera’s viewfinder. She takes snapshots of flowers, glaciers and vistas, later printing them out and attaches select images to her studio wall, located in the lower level of the Salmon Arm Arts Centre. Working from these photographs she uses a detailed drawing technique to scale her imagery, first laying down a foundational pencil drawing on her gessoed canvas, then working in layers to create each painting. As she works, she allows memories and lived experience to be translated through her brush and colour choice, moving acrylic paint on stretched canvas, creating vibrational, boldly coloured naturescapes.

For Lisa, there are familiar feelings present in the mountains, echoed in the sublime palettes of nature. Each hike becomes a reunion, the environment speaking and responding like family members around a table.

Over the years Lisa has noticed that favourite places are changing, often quickly, and in some instances, they have completely melted away. Climate change is visible in the Canadian alpine. She has noticed that the abundance and diversity of her favourite subject matter—alpine flowers—is significantly reduced. She notes there are fewer insects and songbirds than just a few years ago, and wonders if the seasons have changed so much that the pollinators are out of sync with the blossom times. The habitat is still there, but many of the inhabitants are not.

Lisa anticipates being able to hike in the alpine for another 15 to 20 years, and hopes that the meadows of flowers will continue to be there to greet her. The alpine, as it is now and as it once was, is the magic that both stimulates and soothes her soul.