Lissa Nicolaus - San Francisco Bay Area Landscape Artist
 

Lissa, a native Californian, grew up in Carmel, California. She spent part of her high school years in Rome, Italy and has traveled extensively in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, Canada and New Zealand. She was educated at UC Berkeley, the San Francisco Art Institute and the Academy of Art.
After working at the San Francisco Museum of Art, Lissa moved in 1981 from San Francisco to Marin County, California with her husband and two children.

It was there that she was introduced to plein air painting by East Bay artist Pam Glover. After this introduction, Lissa concentrated on the dramatic West Coast beaches, soft rolling hills, picturesque waterfront vistas and scenic small villages of Northern California as the subject matter for her colorful impressionistic paintings.

Lissa is a founding member of the BayWood Artists, a group of professional landscape artists committed to raising public awareness for the preservation of rural open space. She is also an Associate Artist member of the California Art Club, and a member of Marin Open Studios and the Bolinas Museum. Over the years, she has exhibited at the Bolinas Museum, the California Heritage Gallery in San Francisco, MarinScapes in Marin County, Arts Benecia, Sausalito Bay Model, Marin Open Studios, Claudia Chaplin Gallery, and Point Reyes National Seashore Association art exhibitions.
 
Lissa was a featured artist in the Plein Air Scene Newsletter (June/July2001), and her painting “Stinson Dunes” was shown in Southwest Art Magazine in October, 2001 under the “California, Best of the West” section. She was the subject of a Point Reyes Light Newspaper article on her solo show, “Coastal Impressions”, at the Bolinas Museum in 2001. Lissa appeared with fellow artist Zenaida Mott in the September issue 2013 of Ross

Living Magazine in an article entitled, “Meet the Artists”. Most recently Lissa is a featured artist in the December/January - 2014 issue of Plein Air Magazine.
 
Lissa is an avid fly fisherwoman and outdoor enthusiast. She gets her inspiration for many paintings from her travels, but it is the tremendous beauty and variety of Marin County scenes that form the real core of her art. She enjoys hiking and exploring in these incredible North Coast settings and through this activity, Lissa often discovers subject matter for her work. She considers it a privilege to be able to immerse herself in her beautiful environs and then convey on canvas her colorful impressionistic interpretations of these bucolic scenes.