Lake Arrowhead, CA is First Stop of USA Painting Tour Promoting Art for Change

Lake Arrowhead, CA, September 09, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Lake Arrowhead was the first stop of the Across the USA from the Eyes of an Artist tour, which headed out from Los Angeles yesterday. The journey marks the re-emergence of USA-based visual artist Leisa Collins into the art world after two decades of global travels and social activism. Her focus today is on promoting art for change. Leisa first launched her artistic career in New Zealand 1976, after she abandoned formal art training and opted to learn her craft by capturing the beauty of the New Zealand wilderness on her canvas.

Culminating in New York near the end of September, the USA tour promises to be an action-packed adventure and a captivating view of the American canvas from the eyes of an artist.

Hosted by a couple with roots that go back three generations in Arrowhead, Leisa and her husband and co-adventurer, Bruce, were given a scenic tour of the lake by boat. “Having the opportunity to see Arrowhead from the water at sunset was an inspiring experience,” said Leisa. “I am now using this materials for paintings of this lovely spot.”

The afternoon cruise provided an opportunity for Leisa to select the best of an array of lakeside homes for her house portrait contest. “As we travel from city to city throughout the tour, I will be selecting contenders for my Art-Inspiring Homes Contest. There are so many incredible homes in Arrowhead however, it is difficult to narrow it down to just one contender for each of the contest categories, “Most Elegant’, ‘Most Eclectic’ and ‘Most Unique’’. The three national winners will receive a free original portrait of their homes at the end of the tour. House portrait contenders will meanwhile be placed on Leisa’s website at www.leisacollins.com.

In addition to recording the scenic beauty and people of of America through photos and paintings created by Leisa on the road and promoted through her Art with a Message Blog, Leisa will organize kids art projects along the tour to promote and raise funds for children and art education. In this regard, Leisa has partnered with Free Arts for Abused Children so as to get this message across.

Following Arrowhead, the tour heads for the Grand Canyon, then back west via Las Vegas and Death Valley to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Regions of Sequoia and Yosemite. Next is San Francisco, the famous Redwood Forest and up the coast to Oregon and Washington. Yellowstone National Park and the Badlands in South Dekota follow, then Sioux Falls City, Minneapolis/St Paul in Minnesota, Green Bay and Milwaukee in Wisconsin. Crossing to Illinois they will visit Chicago and move onto Lansing and Detroit in Michigan. Next stop is the Niagara Falls, and the Pennsylvania cities of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and the final destination, New York City.

A native of New Zealand, but international in scope, Leisa is now combining her activist and artistic skills under the motto of art with a message. Working mainly in acrylic and watercolors, Leisa is diverse, painting landscapes one day and house portraits and face portraits the next. She also works with other women artists and specializes in art for change projects; in both the realistic and semi-abstract genres. You will find the USA tour route under the Art in Action page of her website. www.leisacollins.com and her Art with a Message Blog follows the action of the tour. Sign up for her weekly newsletter, Art in the Making from her website.

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