Lisa Suarez

“Established in the 1960’s” Lisa Suarez is a 50 ton Master Captain, and numerous award receiving artist, originally from Key West, FL. Her favorite medium of expression is rich bright oils. She makes a statement in being simplistically striking in her use of bold colors and subjects. Her work has been described as organically surreal. Inspired by the elements is apparent in the main reflection of water in most of her work.

While her first love is oil and surrealism, she finds extreme joy in painting her “Happy Fish” on glass. She uses an old artform known as reverse glass painting. They are painted using high quality lightfast acrylics in reverse with the foreground first and background last. Hence the name. Her signature is in reverse as well. They each original painting is sealed with enamel paint. The final product holds up extremely well in the hot and humid Florida Keys environment. She still has the first one painted at age 10, as a gift to her mother, Dr. Betty Suarez (Patterson)PhD. Her mother was a much-loved and still remembered art teacher at Reynolds and Truman Elementary (Harvey Government Center) during the 1950s-1970s. She first gave Lisa paint, a brush and canvas board at the age of 4 as a distraction. It is still working! 

While mostly self-taught, she first studied under Christine Loeber at age 10. After quickly surpassing her classmates, Joachim “Joe” Loeber “stole” her from his wife as a student until the age of 15. Mr. Loeber instilled a love for rich oils as well as Surrealism and Abstract Impressionism. He also taught her proper techniques in canvas stretching, sizing, framing, egg tempera, museum quality varnish cleaning, restoration, and conservation. As an adult, she studied drawing and painting while honing her accounting skills at the University of Pikeville, KY.

In her over 50 years of creating, she has shown and made many new homes for her paintings overseas in Ireland, England, France, and too many in the USA to mention.