Lenore Gish is a Calgary-based artist working in mixed media, and is gratefully Canadian. While earlier work combined still life painting and collage, her current body of work is primarily portraiture. Although she enjoys painting family and friends, she is especially inspired by mature women whose faces tell us something about their life story. The viewer can imagine what their story has been. These are the everyday people who populate her world.

Gish paints these faces in watercolour or acrylic and surrounds them with multiple layers of acrylic paints, papers, fabrics and sewing stitches. These layers of mixed media add visual abstract interest, creating tension with the faces or figures she creates. Her long history with quilt making is reflected in her delight at creating details that are only appreciated when viewing up close. The most recent work pushes the boundaries between abstraction and realism.

Gish is especially sensitive to how women have struggled to feel "seen" in history. Through the language of art, the female narrative takes centre stage in her paintings.

Gish is open for commissions.