LIPTON, “Permanent,” 2009

This extraordinary large-scale drawing is not the largest work of the artist who works on sheets of paper up to seven feet in width…Laurie Lipton began drawing at the age of four! She was the first person to graduate from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pennsylvania with a Fine Arts Degree in Drawing (with honors). She has lived in Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, UK and recently moved to Los Angeles after 36 years abroad. Her work has been exhibited and collected extensively throughout Europe and the USA.

Laurie Lipton was inspired by the religious paintings of the Flemish School. She tried to teach herself how to paint in the style of the 16th century Dutch Masters and failed. When traveling around Europe as a student, she began developing her very own peculiar drawing technique building up tone with thousands of fine cross-hatching lines like an egg tempera painting. “It’s an insane way to draw”, she says, “but the resulting detail and luminosity is worth the amount of effort. My drawings take longer to create than a painting of equal size and detail. I used to sit for hours in the college library copying Durer, Memling, Van Eyck, Goya and Rembrandt. The photographer, Diane Arbus, was another of my inspirations. Her use of black and white hit me at the core of my Being. Black and white is the color of ancient photographs and old TV shows…it is the color of ghosts, longing, time passing, memory, and madness. Black and white ached. I realized that it was perfect for the imagery in my work.”

Watch: “LOVE BITE”—her award-winning documentary

https://vimeo.com/blog/post/staff-pick-premiere-love-bite-by-james-scott/