My work is guided by intuition and emotion, using abstraction and oil paint to explore color, movement, and depth through an instinctive, evolving process.
Lisa Schiller’s work is driven by intuition, time, and emotional honesty. After many years devoted to family and a professional career, her return to painting represents a form of freedom—painting is no longer an activity she fits into life, but the core rhythm of her daily existence and a vital emotional necessity.
Her process begins directly with color, without premeditated ideas. Through blending, layering, and instinctive mark-making, each painting evolves as a dialogue between the artist and the canvas. The first marks act as a release, breaking emptiness and initiating movement. From that point onward, the work develops through commitment and emotional presence, requiring surrender rather than control.
Lisa Schiller works primarily in abstraction, which she sees as a space where emotion can exist without distraction. While figurative elements occasionally emerge, abstraction offers her greater freedom to explore color, texture, and form as expressions rather than representations. Inspiration arises from everyday visual and emotional impressions—fleeting color combinations, resonant shapes, or feelings that demand translation into paint.
She favors oil paint for its slow drying time, which allows reflection, reassessment, layering, and depth. High-quality pigments are central to her practice, providing intensity and clarity that remain true throughout the painting process. She often works on multiple canvases simultaneously, allowing ideas to circulate organically.
Looking ahead, her practice continues to evolve toward material independence, including the creation of custom surfaces, linens, and textures tailored to her technique. Rather than aiming for a fixed destination, her work is rooted in ongoing exploration, patience, and engagement with the act of creation itself.
Lisa Schiller is an American artist based in St. Barth, where she has lived for over three decades. After a long career in the fashion industry, she returned fully to painting, developing an intuitive abstract practice focused on oil paint, color, and material exploration. She works in a process-driven manner, painting daily and allowing time, emotion, and experience to shape her evolving body of work.