A music industry legend, the song that is spilling from Macey Lipman’s artistic heart today is visual. With a new body of work, The Summit Series, Lipman offers a pinnacle – play on words intended – achievement.
The artist has painted all his life, devoting himself full-time to his art for the last twenty years. The immersive landscapes of North and South American peaks that make up this current series were inspired by Lipman’s daughter and her passion for mountain climbing. The result is exhilarating.
The artist’s acrylic on canvas and birchwood works are uniquely compelling. While the images are firmly grounded in the real world, the dreamy, vibrantly colored works also carry with them expressionistic elements. The works are also highly visceral; viewers can almost feel the chill in the shadows of Glacier Peak Volcano; absorb the crisp thinness of the air at the crest of Mt. Shasta.
On January 25th and 26th, the artist will hold two afternoon receptions at his West Hollywood studio and gallery, presenting works from this series and previous bodies that include images from California’s wine country, Cuba, and Italy.
Over the course of his music career, Lipman received 57 gold and platinum album awards, working with artists such as the 5th Dimension, Heart, Chet Baker, Ravi Shankar, and Johnny Rivers. In 1972, he established Macey Lipman Marketing, the first independent marketing company in the recording industry, through which he managed a wide range of campaigns for top recording artists from Dolly Parton to Cher.
But through it all, he painted. He paints daily, depicting pristine landscapes such as “Mt. Rainer and Nisqually Glacier”; the tallest mountain in Washington and the Cascade Range; “Popocatepetl Volcano (El Popa), Mexico,” raining ash below its slopes; and “Glacier Peak Volcano,” the most remote of the five active volcanoes in Washington State.
One of his sparest and most fascinating landscapes from this series is the 30” x 40” “Foggy Lake/Gothic Peak, Washington,” above, a dream-like vision that merges meticulous pointillist technique with wild and mystical scenery.
Equally absorbing are images such as that of a young Guatemalan woman climbing Santa Maria Peak in Guatemala while breast-feeding her baby. Other recurring motifs in Lipman’s work include the wine regions of Napa and Sonoma; and graceful images of reflections in windows, images that shape their own illusory landscape.
Having been accepted to the Michelangelo Accademia D’Arte in Florence, Italy, Lipman is learning to expand his technique with the use of egg tempera and the creation of paints and colors from scratch.
The artist says his life-long passion for painting began as a child, visiting the art section of Gimbel’s department store, attracted to the scent of oil paints and linseed oil. Despite his early inspiration, he did not sell his paintings until 2002; but by 2004 he was selling out at LACMA’s Sales Gallery. Today, Lipman works at his West Hollywood gallery and studio five days a week.
The dual receptions for The Summit Series take place at Macey Lipman Art studio and gallery, located at 511 N. La Cienega Blvd., #210 from 2-6 p.m. both days. The Summit Series will remain on view through February 20th.