Life's a beach – at least it is for Crewe seascape artist, Lisa Joli, who just loves creating a buzz with her images of the coast.

And it's thanks to lockdown and a series of family bereavements that the talented artist picked up her brush and started painting again.

The 53-year-old from Haslington, loves nothing more than heading down to her "art shack" aka beach hut in the garden and picking up a paint brush.

"It's my favourite place and on a warm, sunny day you can often find me painting in my summer house," says Lisa, who loves Cornwall.

"It's my happy place where I can indulge my passion for painting. I paint because it makes me happy."

Many of her beautiful seascapes depict the Cornish beaches and stunning scenery which the artist adores.

Lisa, who lives in Haslington, has always been creative. She has run a writing school and worked as a writer for the last 10 years as well teaching functional skills.

But it wasn't until two days after her late father's death that Lisa, who teaches maths and English in Stoke part-time, that she picked up a brush.

"I'd always loved art at school and won the school prize for art at school in Loughborough when I was 16," said Lisa, who has three children.

"I had a brilliant art teacher who taught me so much and it's thanks to her that I learnt many of my skills.

"She was such an inspiration and a wonderful woman. Sadly she's not alive today but I did keep in touch with her."

Lisa turned to painting as a way of finding peace following a series of deaths in her life.

She said: "I turned to painting as a way to recover my equilibrium and to express myself," said Lisa

"I'd studied art at school and always enjoyed it, and it's been an absolute joy to rediscover my love of painting.

"Aside from those school lessons, I am entirely self-taught."  

Lisa's artistic talent is even more amazing when you consider she suffered another setback in 2017.

She lost a percentage of the sight in her right eye due to a retinal detachment.

"I almost have a painting superpower now," says Lisa. "It has actually helped me to paint better."

Lisa does one-to-one art tuition as well as painting commissions and has started attending life-drawing classes, finding a new love of painting nudes.

She also draws from local landscapes such as Nantwich Lake and the canals for her work but it's the seascapes she is often found painting.

"It's the calm, timelessness and tranquillity you get by spending time by the sea which I love and like to capture in my work," says Lisa.

"Capturing the reflection on the sea when the light is bouncing off is wonderful.

"Painting gives me a real buzz and I love problem solving and working on different ways of bringing things to reality."

Lisa's amazing work can be found on her website www.lisajoliart.com and her Facebook and Instagram account, @lisajoliart.