“I used to focus on portraiture until my husband and I bought a place in Big Sky, Montana. It’s an hour from West Yellowstone and the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, which is a sanctuary for bears and wolves that can’t survive in the wild. I spent days watching the wildlife there and knew I found my calling. I love the mountains and animals so it’s the perfect pairing.”
Atlanta native Lisa Gleim is an award-winning wildlife, landscape, and portrait artist, as well as an accomplished graduate of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the oldest continuously operating art museum and art school in the United States. Lisa splits her time between Atlanta and Big Sky, Montana, and credits the time she’s spent out west as the catalyst for one of her primary subject matters: wild animals including bears, elk, bison, and wolves.
Lisa works in pastels and is particularly skilled at capturing the glow of light and how it illuminates her subjects, especially Western animals. She also distinguishes her wildlife pieces using various ephemera—including vintage national park and state maps, advertisements, and fishing licenses—as the painting’s backgrounds. She adds small touches like gold leaf or a sliver of stone to draw viewers in to imagine the art’s story.
Lisa is the Audubon Artists Gold Medal of Honor for Pastel recipient for 2012 and 2016; Audubon Artists 2013 Art Spirit Foundation's Gold Medal Award for Pastel; and the Audubon Artists 2019 Art Spirit Foundation’s Silver Medal Award for Pastel recipient. In 2016 Lisa was named the Atlanta Branch of the National League of Pen Women's Artist of the Year.
In 2020, the Booth Western Art Museum outside of Atlanta, acquired her large pastel of a brown bear with three crows, The Secret Keepers, for its permanent collection.
Lisa has exhibited her works in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions, including Cowgirl Up! at Desert Caballeros Western Museum in Wickenburg, Arizona; The Russell Show & Sale at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana; the National Museum of Wildlife Art in, Jackson, Wyoming; the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia; the Briscoe Western Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas; the Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Haggin Museum in Stockton, California; the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art in Marietta, Georgia; the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center in Clarksville, Tennessee; Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art in Salisbury, Maryland; the Harbor History Museum in Tacoma, Washington; the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina; and the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Georgia.
Lisa’s works are also held in many public and private collections throughout the world, including the offices of U.S. Congresswoman Nikema Williams, Uline Company, Chick-fil-A, Paramount Pictures, Cartoon Network, Division of Orthopaedics at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and AstraZeneca BioPharmaceuticals.
Lisa is a Master Circle member of the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS/MC); Master-Signature member and board member of American Women Artists (AWAM); a Signature Member of Artists For Conservation (AFC), Cowgirl Artists of America (CGA), American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA) and Pastel Society of America (PSA); an Artist Member of the Copley Society of Art; an Elected Member of Audubon Artists and Allied Artists of America; a Fellow Artist of American Artists Professional League (AAPLF); a Master Pastelist of Southeastern Pastel Society (SPSM); a Signature Member of the Pastel Society of America (PSA); Society of Animal Artists (SAA); and cofounder of the Atlanta Fine Arts League.
Her work is represented by McLarry Fine Art in Santa Fe; SmithKlein Gallery, Boulder, Colorado; Floyd Fine Arts in Pawleys Island, South Carolina; Arise Fine Art in Bozeman, Montana; Beverly McNeil Gallery in Birmingham, Alabama; Paderewski Fine Art in Beaver Creek, Colorado; Lovetts Gallery in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the Atlanta Artist Collective.
Lisa has a studio in Atlanta where she lives with her husband, daughter, and three rescue dogs.