"When I paint, I try very hard to get out of the way and let the creative spirit take control. When that happens, at the end of painting, I know that my talent has been allowed to show itself. That's when I feel the most appreciative of this pursuit." About American Artist Lisa Fox Lisa Fox is an American artist known for her captivating abstracts and early works as an impressionist, painting en plein air.Being raised on a farm in Southern Illinois, on the banks of the Ohio River, explains a lot about who Lisa grew up to become. Of her childhood, she says “Those years on the farm, beside the often intimidating, always powerful Ohio River, inspired my sense of endless curiosity. I was enthralled by nature, it’s vastness and beauty, and always tried to express that sense of wonder in my art. Nature seems to unlock creativity like nothing else.” As natural as the Ohio River flowing south into the Mighty Mississippi, so too is Lisa Fox’s path in art. She loves it, lives it, sees it, speaks it, encompasses, envelopes, expresses it. There has never been a time Lisa wasn’t drawing, painting, creating something out of her imagination.The farm was Lisa’s early workshop. From that sacred place, Lisa sought more formal training, enrolling in art studies at Murray State University in Kentucky. She had a deeply passionate spirit for excellence and from that platform, went on to seek out individual, accomplished artists to study under. Though quick to appreciate the training at Murray State, it is her spirit that drives Lisa day by day and inspires the outcome of her work. In 1994 Lisa made her way to Nashville, TN where for 10 years she worked with prominent designers, creating hand painted furniture and decorative objects, mastering the trickery of trompe l’ oeil and faux finishes.Found by an art collector with a keen eye for talent, Lisa was commissioned to paint a large mural in a historic home in Leiper’s Fork, Tennessee. The simplicity of the village felt like home to Lisa, and before the six months of mural-painting was up, she was well on her way to becoming a permanent fixture in The Fork. First entering the community of Plein Air painters, capturing the hills and vales of Middle Tennessee, Lisa saw her early works added to the collections of prominent art-lovers throughout the Southeast.Soon she would open Leiper’s Creek Gallery, one of Tennessee’s most meaningful and inspiring galleries, in the unlikely village of Leiper’s Fork. The gallery celebrates 20 years in 2021. The late Anton Weiss (1936-2019), renowned abstract expressionist, was an early supporter of the gallery. Lisa names Weiss as her foundational mentor and says she can still hear his voice and words of encouragement as she works. Weiss influenced her to apply classical training towards abstraction; using composition, color, and value to go deeper than surface and provoke a feeling. Others high on her list are Franz Kline, Joaquin Sorolla, Edgar Payne, John Singer Sargent. Regarding her evolution as a painter, Lisa admits to a five-year hiatus. She put all of her creative energy into her business; marketing, hanging, design and collaborating with her artists. The gallery was her canvas.When Lisa began painting again in 2016, the mystical, miraculous experience all creatives dream of happened. Lisa explains, “I embraced my calling to paint in abstraction and found my voice and spiritual purpose.” This is brilliant news for national and international collectors who now have a Lisa Fox in their collections. Lisa’s abstract works do not dictate the viewers emotion, but they do demand one. To explain the clarity of finding her voice, Lisa uses the word juxtaposition with descriptors - old against new, rough against smooth, color against neutral, dirty against clean, traditional beside contemporary. Ah, yes, like that beautiful, rooted Southern Illinois farm juxtaposed beside the intimidating, always changing Ohio River. It is no surprise Lisa Fox found her voice.