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Jeremy Lipkin$
has quickly caught the art world's attention
with his Iandscape, poilrait, and still-life paintings I
By Dottie tndyke
T WAS WHILL, HE wAS A STUDENT AT THE CRTITOINIA Anr Institute that leremy Lipking learned how to see. In his younger days, he'd size up the human figure as the sum of its parts, picking out the eyes, the nose, the mouth, and the hands. But his teachers at the institute taught him to detect the shapes created by lights and darks and the subtleties of color. Although he'd always drawn and painted, Lipking says, at the end of his year in art school it was obvious that he'd made a tremendous artistic leap. Since then, the California artist has confidentlY and tenaciously chased the dreams he
set out for himself while he was a
student. He strives to master the fundamentals of painting and re-
create the inspiration that generated each piece in the first place. From the looks of his career trajectory-he is only 26 years old and already exhibits at
four galleries (including one in New York City), where his work regularly sells out-it's fhir to say he's well on the way to achieving his goals.
-r- iokinp. was born in Santa I M";a and has livcd in I 'southern Califbrnia most of his life. His lather is an advertising designer, children's
book illustrator, and landscaPe painter, so Lipking's childhood was immersed in art. Under his fhther's tutelage, he learned some of the basics of design, drawing, and color. He might rather have
been home watching cartoons, he says ruefully, but his fhther insisted they spend tirne at local Rusu Cnrar, otI-,
86
Souruwasr ARr
.
I4-{Y 2002
14 x 20.
museums and galleries.
Despite the fact that he in art, was music that drew him
demonstrated early talent
it
strongly. Throughout his teens,
Lipking played guitar
and
performed in a punk and reggae
band. He appreciated and played all types of music and considered the possibility that music might be his calling.
For a semester after high school, he took art classes at a local community college. Then,
at his father's suggestion, he looked into the California Art Institute, an intimate academy in Westlal<e Vi11age. Once his classes
started, he became impassioned b), the traditional approach that the school fbstered. "trVhen I
started studying, I painted still lifes, dre figure, and landscapes,"
Lipking says. "Painting the Iandscape was a litde easier than
hiring a model or finding
a place
to paint the model or the still life. You could just go out and set up your easel."
Lipking was attracted to a tradirionel style of' painting because "it has so much to do with what's happening right here and right nou-you'rc cap turing the moment," he says. "For example, if
you're out painting at the end of the day and the iight's coming down and hitting the side of a
hiliside or a mountain,
that's it. That's what you need ro paint. That's the here and nou,. Of course. that's not the whole statement. It has more to do rvith capturing things the rvay you see them."
After a year of study x1d armed with the basics, Lipking set off determined to gror,v tlre way he likes beston his own. Indeed, he
in retrospect. the most imporacl<nowledges
tant thing he learned
in art school
was
how to teach himself. "I was never taught one
particular styls of pair-rting. It changed each time depending on the subject or hbw much time I had. I've learned many fllffsr.r1
ways of starting
a
painting from Richard Sclrmid's book Alla A"uouc
88
Souu:wr*r Anr . trtrw 2002
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Prima."
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Lrpraxc (coNrrlur rnou lecr
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CHBT6TOpHEB OJEEN CALLflPIE6
Hollywood. Impressed with his work, owner Jeff Morseburg invited the then 24-year-old to join his stable. In lanuary 2001, the gallery sponsored a solo show for the young artist, and nearly all the paintings sold. Later in the year, Lipking took the top honor at the California Art Club's Gold Medal Exhibit for an evocative, classically inspired nude
painting. This fune, Lipking will teach a figure painting class at the Fechin Institute in Taos, and at year's end, Arcadia Gallery in New York City plans a one-man show of his work.
This startling turn of events is a little overwhelming for Lipking, who a few short months ago had no idea what to expect of his career. He is working as hard as he can, he admits, and still he worries about spreading himself too thin. He is young and the future is an amorphous concept, .so Lipking contents himself with his art, his new marriage to a former
MICHAEL
VOOD Qepresentin6 hio vork
lor over
a decade
Qecenl vork available at
"Tvilight" The Ma6ic Hour May 4th, 2OO2 Throu6h July 7th Vork by [ar1y California
6
Ca11ery Artisls
"Amber & Jade"
30"x 24"
TAPI,Y CAI,ITOPN]A ABT16T6.
COIITIMPOBAPY APTI6T6' l\4ichaelWood, Joanna l\4atthews, Don Ealy,
Will Sparks, Alexis Podchernikoff, Deidrick Gremke, John Garth, Thomas ()xley Miller & many others
Jack Cassinetto,.Jeri 0uinn, Christine Crozier, Dave Gallup, l\4ichael Coy, Jane Hofstetter, Dave Sellers & others
T\flItICM
PAINTINC,6 tsY
P.O. Dox
28.
Duncaro Milis, CA 95430 o (7OZ) 8611318
. w.clriolopherqueen.com
student at the California Art Institute, his music, and the general here-and-now.
Asked to imagine what might be the pinnacle of his promising future, the artist demurs. "I feel really fortunate that I've had the opportunity to study art in the first place. That's a complete luxury. Everything has happened so quickly," he allows. "Ask me in a couple of years and maybe I'11 be able to tell VOU-,, U
Dottie Indyke writes the monthly Native Arts column.
LTpTINc IS REPRESENTED BY MoRsr,suRc G,ttlnRIns, Wssr Horrvwooo, CA; WarEnnousB GAILERY, SaNra Bannana, CA; Lgcacv GAltrnv, Scorrsoarn, AZ; aNo AncaorA GATLERY, NEw Yonr<, NY. M,xy 2002
.
SoLrE{wEsr
ART 153
The result of his self-improvement ef
clothed, some in nature) some shown full-body
forts is an artist who is rigorously disciplined, rarely leaves his studio,
and others cropped at
the neck-are perhaps his most intriguing, Lipking's still-lifes and landscapes are equally ethereal. The light in his paintings is enigmatic, cast with drama
and remains focused on
improving with each succeeding painting. He studies the works of fohn Singer Sargent, Nicolai Fechin, and Spanish plein-air master ]oaquin Sorolla y Bastida. He is especially inspired by artists such as Swedish painter Anders Zorn, who is known for his depictions of nudes in landscape settings. "I can't really paint the figure and ignore what's behind it," Lipking says of his recent images that combine the human figure and the landscape. "The figure looks the way it does because of the landscape behind it, and the landscape looks the way it does because
In
ofthe figure." places close to home,
such as the Pacific Coast, Malibu Canyon, and the Santa Monica Mountains, Lipking will paint with a live model or, if conditions are prohibitive, take photographs as reference.
He prefers to work outdoors and tries to do as many pieces
and subdety.
"I'm attracted to the figure and the landscape because of how challenging they are. There's something I need to learn about
thoser" he says. "And just painting outdoorsthere are so many different ways you can approach that." Fn.q.tlrnn
Her, orr,
make a quick painting from life,
that Lipking's work is steeped in art history, confident draftsmanship, a love of the human figure, and a penchant
photograph his model, and
for romantic poses
then take the material back to his studio for completion. But he follows no set rules, opting instead for whatever process seems to best suit the painting. Lipking's style is classic and romantic, akin to 19thcentury portrait and naturalistic landscape paintings. Dressed in long skirts, short jackets, shawls, and closely fitted hats, his female subjects seem to be of another era. In a single canvas, he will realistically render some sections-for example, a lone figure and nearby trees-while leaving the rest a soft field of color. "I paint that way because it's how I see," he explains. "You can't see everything in
locations. But that is not to say that the whole world of art doesn't hold appeal. "I know some people who are militant traditionalists or extreme modern artists," he says. "But I have an appreciation for all rypes of expression. Part of it comes from music. I don't want to limit myself to one type of music or one type of art. I
in one sitting. The ideal method, he savs, is to as possible
Though his paintings of
figures-some nude,
and
know the way I want my paintings to look. But appreciating art is a different thing."
A little over a vear ago, A liot ir,, entered a few of -l- I.t.lir paintings in the California Art Club's spring
salon, hopeful they would be
focus at once." Jr,rslrv LrprrNc,
There is no doubt
24 x 18.
some
exhibited at Morseburg Galleries
in West (coNrrNuro
oN
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rs3)
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