There is a lot of superb contemporary realism being made these days; this article by Allison Malafronte shines light on a gifted individual.
Thick, expressive brushstrokes of colorful, juicy paint can be found in all of Lisa Golightly’s (b. 1974) work, whether in her abstract paintings, realist paintings, or the ones that hit that perfect chord right in the middle. Her flexibility as an artist comes from her innate eye for design and composition, her penchant for and understanding of color harmonies, and the freedom she gives herself as a curious observer and explorer of images and ideas.
Golightly earned her B.F.A. from the University of Arizona and initially focused on photography. That influence shaped the direction she decided to pursue as a painter, as all her work today revolves around memory and how snapshots shape, influence, change, and even create memory. Working in acrylic and high-gloss enamel, Golightly uses found photos taken by others to create her own interpretation of a moment from the past. Although she might not know the people in the picture personally, the artist still chooses images that somehow resonate with her or elicit a memory or connection from her own experience.
Her painting “Red Sail” is one such example where someone else’s captured moment helped her recall one of her own. Golightly saw this vintage photograph and immediately remembered her own childhood and summers spent sailing on a nearby lake. That’s all the catalyst she needed to use the photo to inspire a painting that combines a stranger’s moment in time and her own. She made the looming maroon-and-pink sail the focal point for this very large piece, creating a perfectly tranquil environment of figures and nature around it.
Golightly has had a variety of influences in her life, from photographers to printmakers, but there are a few specific painters whose work comes to mind when viewing hers: Richard Diebenkorn on the landscape side, for the geometric lyricism, passion for both realism and abstraction, and tonalist palette. And on the figurative side, perhaps Edward Hopper, for that life-through-a-lens, street-level view of people and their private moments. Regardless of influences, Golightly excels in a place she has created herself: using her unique vision to take anonymous moments of the past and bring them to the present with joy, life, and color.
