For some people, it’s the mountains. For Seacoast native Lisa Noonis, it’s the ocean that moves her.
“It’s just a vital force for me,” she said.
Her new body of work, called “Tidal,” consists of 24 paintings inspired by the ocean. But she hesitates to call them “seascapes,” because the paintings only began there. They ended up more like mindscapes.
“This work is much more me than earlier work,” Noonis said.
“Tidal” opens with a reception at the Banks Gallery in Portsmouth on Thursday, Aug. 27, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. The exhibition remains on view through Oct. 2.
In 2004, Noonis made the drastic decision to abandon her successful commercial design company and fully commit to painting. She longed to create art for herself, without compromising any creativity, and was feeling burnt out from the intense pace of the advertising industry.
“You know when you’re being called to do something and you have to do it now,” she said. “It was time.”
Although there’s more uncertainty, since she isn’t certain her time will be profitable, Noonis said becoming a painter is the best decision she’s ever made.
“I knew if I painted from the right place, it would work out. And it has,” she said.
Summer by Lisa Noonis
Evidence of her former career can still be found in her new paintings, even as she moves away from realism. For example, there are purposeful design elements and flourishes of color meant to catch the eye, while the composition remains carefully balanced.
She spent the past year working on the “Tidal” series, and said there’s an obvious progression over time. Her canvases have gotten much larger, to reflect the vastness of the ocean, and there’s more experimentation.
“I felt like when I finished the last one, I was just getting started,” Noonis said. “If you’re growing, you keep going. You just keep going.”
While she might paint the same subject matter over and over again, she paints it differently each time. She starts at the beach, but she finishes painting in her studio, using memory and emotion. There are still traces of the coast and clouds, even umbrellas, but there’s meaning behind it.
“Working from memory gives you freedom in color and texture and feeling. For me, that is where it’s at,” she said.
Noonis said she’s not sure exactly how it happens, but when she’s in the studio, her hand almost seems guided by a spiritual presence.
“I feel incredible gratitude,” she said. “I try to get out of the way. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it’s going to teach you something.”
Though largely self-taught through daily practice, Noonis has studied painting, including in a class with Eric Aho in 2012, while his retrospective was on view at the Currier Museum in Manchester. He encouraged her to paint more personally in response to the moment and memory, instead of aiming for a perfect rendering.
“There’s a lot of pressure to make it look right. But the eye remembers above and beyond what you’ve seen,” she said. “It’s hard to let go of what it looks like and make what it actually feels like.”
In the Mist by Lisa Noonis
When painting, Noonis leaves conceptual spaces for other people to fill in for themselves. Rather than telling the whole story, her semi-abstract technique lets viewers contribute their own experiences when interpreting the painting. This keeps the work fresh and fluid, and makes for a different reaction for everyone, every day.
“The paintings I love, they keep me in the painting. Every day I see something new in it,” she said. “I think that’s the sign of a great painting. It keeps you coming back, and it just moves you.”
She returns to the ocean most days, and she paints most days. The salt water reminds her of where her mother lived, and going even further back, it’s reminiscent of the womb.
In her paintings, you can detect her hand in the many layers of paint, the energy behind it, and the places where she’s clearly added or subtracted it. There’s both strength and vulnerability in that. And, sometimes, there’s an admirable feminine quality that comes directly from the artist and her muses, regardless of whether the subject matter is a still life with flowers in a vase, a figure model in a tutu, or the beach.
“You don’t want to paint like someone else,” Noonis said. “You want to paint your true hand.”
She said no one else could know what goes into the paintings, when they only see them finished and framed. There’s a thoughtful connection, an authenticity that leaves her feeling exposed. And there is no doubt the artist is a part of these paintings she’s given life to.
“I want to be honest. It’s not just for sale,” she said. “I want them to be my legacy. If I’m not there, I want to be seen in them.”
The Banks Gallery is located at 32 Daniel St., Portsmouth, and online at thebanksgallery.com.
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