Artist Spotlight: Lisa Widener

Jan 9

In this spotlight, Tucson-based artist Lisa Widener shares her personal evolution from a rigid perfectionist who thought art had to be 'hard' to an intuitive creator who finally gave herself permission to make it honest.

Serenity in Motion , painting by Lisa Widener - Koi Fish in water — **Serenity in Motion -** *Stabilized flow, quiet confidence*

Exploration, Permission, and Process

The works shown here reflect a personal shift in my creative process—moving away from rigid rules and toward curiosity, experimentation, and permission.

For a long time, I believed that being a “real” artist meant doing everything the hard way.

Every line had to be drawn by hand. Every proportion carefully measured. If it felt too easy, I quietly questioned whether it counted, or was “real art”.

I didn’t say that belief out loud, but it followed me into the studio. Over time, curiosity started poking holes in it.

I watched other artists work. I took a class here, a video there. I noticed professionals openly using reference images, projectors, and tools designed to speed up the early stages so they could spend their energy where it actually mattered—on color, movement, and emotion.

At first, it felt like cheating. Then something unexpected happened. As I loosened my grip on being a purist, my work didn’t lose its voice—it found it.

Using references didn’t erase my originality. Moving faster through the sketch didn’t cheapen the painting. Exploration didn’t dilute my integrity—it gave me room to breathe.

Everything here is still my hand, my eye, my decisions. The difference is that now they’re guided by openness instead of rules—allowing layers, marks, and color to build intuitively rather than methodically.

We’re all shaped by what we absorb—art, color, technology, conversations, the world around us. What matters isn’t pretending we’re untouched by influence, but how we transform it into something honest.

This body of work reflects an ongoing practice of trust—trusting curiosity, process, and the freedom to explore without needing to justify every step.

Painting by Lisa Widerer - Horse with blue manes — **Mystical Majesty**
*Struggle, constraint, experimentation under pressure*

Painting by Lisa Winderer, Blue Pegasus — **Waiting in the Wings**
*Threshold moment — pause before permission*

Paiting By Lisa Widener - Gears in Motion - face of a horse with many colors — **Gears in Motion**
*Structure and intuition learning to coexist*

Painting by Lisa Widener - very colorful, 2 horses nose to nose - Fire and Flow — **Fire & Flow**
*Energy, movement, trust emerging*

**Emerald Spirit**
*Integration — confidence, layering, full permission*

ARTIST BIO

Lisa Widener is a Tucson-based visual artist working in what she calls abstracted realism, blending bold color, intuitive movement, and representational forms. Her work is shaped by curiosity, faith, and a long-held belief that creativity is meant to evolve rather than stay boxed in by rules.

After years of holding herself to rigid standards about how art “should” be made, Lisa’s practice has shifted toward experimentation, exploration, and trust—allowing process to be as important as outcome. Painting has become both a creative and personal dialogue, a way of listening inward and responding visually.

Through Widener Arts, she creates original paintings that invite reflection, movement, and permission—to explore, to soften certainty, and to see familiar forms in new ways.

WidenerArts.com
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