By Estella Lauter

Liz spent most of her summers in Fish Creek while growing up in Chicago.  After majoring in art history and psychology in college, Liz moved to Door County where she bought an old farmhouse. Later, she and her partner Rick remodeled the original chicken coop on the property to show their art.  Marisch Gallery is open by appointment.

One of Liz’s first jobs was managing the Hardy Gallery.  She owned and managed a women’s art-to-wear clothing store, The Magic Jacket, for many years, sewing clothes and hand-painting them.  This business evolved into decorative painting of furniture and other objects or spaces.  In 2004, she discovered landscape painting “en plein air” and now she paints outside whenever possible, working in pastel, acrylic and oil.  In 2014 she was invited to participate in her sixth Plein Air Festival of artists from across the country sponsored by the Peninsula Art School.  She was also invited to participate in the fifth annual Door Prize for Portraiture at Chez Cheryl in Baileys Harbor and in the Hardy Gallery’s Collector’s Showcase exhibit. She continues to show in local and regional exhibits where she has won awards for both her landscapes and portraits.  Liz also enjoys teaching, especially beginners, at the Peninsula Art School, the Art Garage in Green Bay, and privately.

Her bright and innovative use of color, technique, and pattern express both her enthusiasm for the outdoors and her background in fabric and design.  Because she works en plein air most of the time, her work is directly influenced by the weather, temperature, wind velocity, time of day, etc. She almost never uses photos; the “accuracy” she seeks has more to do with the feeling and sense of a place, the light and atmosphere, than with the actual details of a scene.

Liz Maltman’s show will hang in the UU Gallery for the month of November; gallery hours are Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 1 – 3 pm and Sunday from 11 – 12:30 pm.