Flowers Power Alisa H. Workman’s Beautiful Paintings

Alisa H. Workman is a preschool art teacher by day and a painter by nights and weekends. Flowers are frequently the subjects of her works, a choice that comes from the Beavercreek resident’s memories of pulling marigolds in her grandmother’s backyard as a child. She embraces art in her own garden too, tiling birdbaths, crafting mosaics and painting terracotta pots.

Workman’s artistic journey really started taking off in 2017 when she signed up for a workshop where the only instruction was to paint — an experience that, although seemingly unremarkable at the time, led her to look at the blank canvas in new ways and provided the first steps on a new path.

“We turned the canvas around, we added colors we didn’t normally use — things like that,” she says. “I had a good time. I didn’t really learn that much except to try to just be free and paint.”

Workman refers to her artistic approach as intuitive painting or, as she likes to put it, “throw paint and see what appears.” She uses high flow acrylics, which provide a more translucent look, and spritzed water to create her nature-inspired pieces, prioritizing bold hues over everything.

“That’s what the color is meant to do,” she says. “It’s meant to make people happy, to fill them with joy … That’s the reason I started painting when I did.”

In early 2020, Dayton’s Wheat Penny Oven and Bar asked to hang Workman’s entire 40-piece collection in its restaurant. Soon after, Dayton’s Front Street Art Studios & Galleries and Columbus’ Riffe Gallery, among other establishments, were displaying her works as well.

In 2022, after learning of some family health issues, Workman went to Pennsylvania to stay with one of her daughters. In her free time, she felt compelled to paint as a way of sorting through her emotions. She named that series “The Daughters Collection,” which will be on display in May 2024 at the Woodbourne Library in Centerville.

“My husband always said, ‘Why do you paint?’ I paint because it makes me happy. I paint because it’s a stress relief. I paint for myself,” Workman says. “I have to remind myself a lot of times [that] if somebody doesn’t like it or if my painting doesn’t sell, that wasn’t the intent in the first place. The first thing for me is to find some kind of joy.”

For more information, visit ahworkmanart.com.