I’m Lisa Elley, a professional palette-knife painter known for bold texture, coastal light, and the joy of color.

My journey began far from California, on a little farm in New Zealand, where I grew up barefoot with a sketchbook in hand, never far from the ocean. That early immersion in wild landscapes shaped my lifelong obsession with the natural world: rolling hills, forests, flowers, and the endless horizon of the sea.

Years later, as a young mother, I rediscovered painting through evening oil classes. When a mentor introduced me to the palette knife, everything changed. The sculptural movement, the way thick impasto paint caught the light, it felt alive. From that moment, I put down the brush and never looked back.

Today, from my studio in the Monterey Bay Area, I create textured oil landscapes collected worldwide. My subjects are the places I can’t stop returning to, the California coast, golden poppy fields, cypress groves, and the rumble of the Pacific. Each painting is built with deliberate strokes of the knife, sometimes bold and choppy, sometimes refined and painterly, always alive with movement and light.

Collectors often tell me that my work makes them feel something, joy, presence, connection. That’s the heart of it for me: not just to make a painting, but to create a portal. A reminder of beauty, coherence, and belonging.

In a world that can feel uncertain, my art is my offering of color, texture, and joy. Thank you for being here and for stepping into this world with me.