L. (Gauthier) Miceli is a plein air painter and art teacher with a focus on expressionist watercolors and oils. Her path to becoming an artist was gradual, as she took classes and workshops whenever she could during her twenty + years working as a psychologist. Lisa has been able to devote herself full-time to art and teaching for the past five years and through art classes, demos, and plein air painting, has been able to share the joy of painting with students and with the community. A significant influence on her development as an artist was her grandmother, Lucille (LaCoursiere) Gauthier who was an illustrator, watercolorist, and a Works Progress Administration artist in the 1930’s, and whose work preserving American artifacts in watercolor was exhibited and archived at the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.
Her grandmother was an inspiration and guide as Lisa began exploring watercolor. During that time, she studied watercolor painting with British plein air watercolorist Ron Ranson who influenced her expressive watercolor style and her focus on atmospheric land/seascapes and skies. Lisa continued to study this loose approach to watercolor with Bob Noreika at the Lyme Art Association whose expressionist work depicting New England harbor scenes was a major influence. Her impressionist oil paintings grew from this watercolor work, and learning from Howard Park’s impressionist plein air approach with the palette knife, she painted local land and seascapes with the Noank 9 plein air painting group with a focus on capturing the mood and atmosphere of each scene.
She has won awards for her expressive watercolors at the New England Watercolor Society Regional and plein air shows, at Mystic Museum of Art shows, and was winner of the JMW Turner watercolor competition at the Mystic Seaport; she received a recent award for her plein air oil painting at Lyme Art Association. Her oil and watercolor paintings have been in galleries and juried shows throughout New England and in Oklahoma City.
