Selected Projects, Press & Collections
Lisa Elley is a contemporary California artist known for expressive palette-knife paintings defined by sculptural impasto, atmospheric color, and a strong sense of place.
Her work has been published internationally, developed through long-standing artist partnerships, selected for major wine and hospitality projects, exhibited through established gallery representation, and collected for private, corporate, and healthcare environments across the United States.
Published Work
Palette Knife Painting: Deep Impasto
Lisa Elley is the author of Palette Knife Painting: Deep Impasto, published by Walter Foster Publishing, an imprint of The Quarto Group.
The 128-page instructional art book explores Lisa’s distinctive palette-knife technique through materials, color theory, impasto methods, and eight complete painting projects spanning landscape, seascape, florals, vineyards, and textured oil painting. Published in 2023, the book brought her approach to palette-knife painting to an international audience through one of the best-known names in instructional art publishing.
RGM Artist Partnership
Nearly a Decade of Collaboration with RGM
Lisa has maintained a long-standing artist relationship with RGM, the Italian manufacturer internationally recognized for professional palette knives and fine-art tools.
Over nearly a decade, she has worked with and promoted RGM products as part of her professional palette-knife practice. The collaboration expanded to include Lisa Elley × RGM co-branded palette knives bearing Lisa’s signature on the handle — a distinctive partnership connecting her name directly with the tool at the center of her artistic language.
For an artist whose work is built almost entirely through the palette knife, the relationship represents a natural alignment between artist, material, and craft.
Wente Vineyards Artist of the Year
Artist Series Collaboration — Wente Family Vineyards
Lisa was selected by jury as Artist of the Year for Wente Family Vineyards, one of California’s most historically significant wineries and the oldest continuously family-owned and operated winery in the United States, founded in 1883.
As part of the collaboration, Lisa created five original artworks for Wente’s Artist Series wine labels, translating her expressive palette-knife language into a limited wine collection.
Her paintings were also exhibited in the Wente Vineyards tasting room for one year, creating an extended presentation of her work within one of Northern California wine country’s established destinations.
The project brought together fine art, wine, hospitality, and California landscape in one of the most substantial brand collaborations of Lisa’s career. Lisa has also written about the project and her year as Wente’s Artist of the Year.
Selected Hospitality, Corporate & Healthcare Collections
Lisa Elley’s original paintings have been selected for private, corporate, hospitality, and healthcare environments, where scale, color, texture, and sense of place become part of the surrounding architecture.
Kaiser Permanente — San Diego
Original artwork by Lisa Elley has been placed within a Kaiser Permanente healthcare environment in San Diego, extending her work beyond private residential collections into a major institutional setting.
Her large-scale and highly textured paintings are particularly suited to spaces where original art can provide both visual presence and a strong sense of atmosphere.
Selected Private & Narrative Commissions
Carried by the Trade Winds — Kauai, Hawaii
48 × 72 inches
A large-scale private commission inspired by Kauai, bringing together outrigger canoe, sail, loosely rendered figures, Pacific water, mountain landscape, and narrative movement in Lisa’s signature palette-knife impasto.
The project marked an important expansion of her landscape practice into larger narrative work while retaining the physical texture, abstraction, and sense of place at the center of her paintings.
Hula at Sunset
Created as a companion piece to Carried by the Trade Winds, this Hawaii-inspired figurative landscape integrates human presence with shoreline, tropical vegetation, ocean, and sunset atmosphere.
Pebble Beach Light
30 × 48 inches
A private commission developed specifically for a collector’s contemporary office.
Beginning with photographs of the room, wall proportions, interior finishes, and an initial landscape concept, the project evolved toward the iconic 7th hole at Pebble Beach. The finished painting was created to respond both to the character of the Monterey Peninsula and to the architecture and palette of the room in which it now hangs.
Gallery Representation
Adelman Fine Art — San Diego, California
Lisa has been represented by Adelman Fine Art since 2018.
Located in San Diego’s Little Italy district, Adelman Fine Art is a contemporary gallery presenting original work by established and emerging artists. Lisa’s palette-knife paintings have been exhibited and sold through the gallery for many years, establishing a sustained Southern California gallery presence alongside her direct studio practice.
Her current work continues to be represented through Adelman Fine Art, including original California coastal landscapes and selected commissions.
View Lisa’s Porfolio at Adelman Fine Art →
Private Collections
Lisa Elley’s paintings are held in private collections throughout California and across the United States, including the San Francisco Bay Area, Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz, San Diego, and beyond.
Her collector base includes repeat buyers, private clients, commissioned collectors, designers, and individuals seeking original paintings connected to meaningful landscapes and places.
Artwork for Collectors, Designers & Hospitality
Lisa works directly with private collectors, interior designers, hospitality buyers, and commercial clients seeking original artwork for significant spaces.
Projects may include:
available original paintings
large-scale statement works
custom landscape commissions
meaningful-place paintings
narrative landscape commissions
artwork for residential, hospitality, corporate, and healthcare environments
View Available Paintings →
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