Art Books: Laurie Lipton's Obsessions

Previous Artist Spotlight subject Laurie Lipton has been described as borderline fanatical. Her immense drawings are obsessively detailed. She draws for at least six hours every day, in light, feathery cross-hatching to create incredible volume and depth.

Featuring more than 70 works, The Drawings of Laurie Lipton is the most conclusive and ambitious publication about the artist to date. A conversation between Lipton and Begovich Gallery director Mike McGee offers insights into her personal history, motivations, and creative process. Lipton's brief notes about several specific artworks offer further anecdotes and context.

Inspired by the religious paintings of the Flemish School, Laurie Lipton 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 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."

"It was all abstract and conceptual art when I attended university. My teachers told me that figurative art went 'out' in the Middle Ages and that I should express myself using form and shapes, but splashes on canvas and rocks on the floor bored me," she said. "I knew what I wanted: to create something no one had ever seen before, something that was brewing in the back of my brain. What I wanted fell between 'isms.' It wasn't 'surreal,' it wasn't 'real'... it was lurking between the two."

Available now at LastGasp.com
See more of Lipton's work on the following pages >>>

Lachrymose Lace, charcoal and graphite on paper, 22" x 16"

Augmental, charcoal & graphite on paper, 67" x 53"

Laurie Lipton at work