Lisa Cornwell is the Color Match Queen. She chooses an object or landscape and then mimics it with oil paint on a miniature canvas. The result is essentially an illusion because the match is so seamless you won’t know where the canvas ends and the subject begins.
“I’ve always had an interest in art, but I was touring different mediums until I figured out where I belonged, which was in painting,” Cornwell says.
Painting is lucky to have Cornwell. Her work, which she shares on Instagram and TikTok to thousands of followers, is mesmerizing. Colors quickly come together in strokes and swishes until they practically disappear into the background of her short-form videos.
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Blue and red make purple. Red and yellow make orange. But watching the careful yet swift consideration Cornwell puts into every color match, it’s clear that her process goes well beyond what we learned in elementary school art class.
“It’s a language to me,” says Cornwell. “I enjoy breaking down the details that are irrelevant to everyone else.”
As we talk at a local coffee shop, Cornwell notes the color of the chair I’m sitting on. She says it’s brown but has a lot of yellow in it. It is finally declared to be a burnt sienna. Cornwell quickly rattles off the combinations of colors she would mix to achieve exactly that. It’s obvious that she wants to get it exactly right. But she tells me color matching has challenged that instinct in her.
“It has taught me to be quick. Be logical. Be loose and move on when it’s time,” notes Cornwell. “With the constraint of natural lighting, I have to move on because if I keep waiting it will no longer match. I’ll never get to the next painting if I’m stuck on making the last one perfect.”
The overall operation is a nimble one. Cornwell brings a small selection of oil paint and paint brushes, a tripod, swatches of canvas and her cell phone to every session. Her palette is actually a lid to a little jar with roughly 20 base color options.
“I keep the colors the same because it’s a well-built team,” Cornwell says. “I know everyone on it and how they work with each other. I could get away with less, but I can speed up some of the matches with more options.”
It’s a marvel to see what colors Cornwell can achieve with that modest palette as a starting point, especially given her sweet spot for the explosive and vibrant colors of the great outdoors. She has done paintings in front of crab apple trees, meadows, blue skies and the Niagara River more times than she can count.
“I have chased that river so much,” Cornwell says. “I love that it’s always moving and changing depending on the day and weather. It’s also the brightest turquoise you’ll ever see.”
Because of the live aspect of Cornwell’s videos, viewers get a lot of color commentary, in the literal and figurative sense. She notes that a given body of water “wants more yellow.” She acknowledges little hiccups and troubleshoots new color combinations in mere seconds. She remarks on extremely minute details of a given subject. It’s a fascinating glimpse of not only how Cornwell’s mind works, but perhaps how we could better train our own.
“When I choose nature as my subject, it brings attention to those things,” Cornwell says. “In the back of your mind, hopefully it reminds you to see the value of it. I would like my work to remind people why it’s important to take notice and take care of the environment.”
