2005 Governors Arts Awards

NH Folk Heritage Award
Created by Lisa Carpenter, Barrington

Lisa is a self-taught painter who, since the age of 12, has been inspired by her grandfather’s nature sketches. Lisa grew up in one of New Hampshire's remaining farmhouses in Rochester, and is very much influenced by her memories and experiences there as a child. Her work falls mostly in the "memory painting” genre of decorative painting, depicting scenes of rural towns, landscapes and farms that commonly grace the New Hampshire landscape. Carpenter paints on surfaces as varied as wooden furniture pieces, antique shovels, coat racks, broom handles and wooden trays. Her work has been published in Country Living magazine and she has represented NH folk art painting at the Epcot Center in Walt Disney World in Florida. In 1995, 103 of her chests painted with winter sledding scenes were sold on the QVC channel, when a "NH artists" show was filmed at Mount Washington in 1995.