My painting in the film The Maiden Heist

My painting The Lonely Maiden is starring alongside Morgan Freeman, Christopher Walken and William H. Macy in the upcoming film The Maiden Heist.
When I first met with the director he opened up the Gabriel Weisberg book Beyond Impressionism: the Naturalist Impulse, (which is probably the most worn out book on my shelf) and said "we need something like this" a painting in the manner of Naturalist painters George Clausen, Emile Friant and Jules Bastien Lepage. I had to finish the painting in 7 days, it normally would have taken me a month or longer to do something this size. I got artist model Toni Czechorosky help me out with the period costume.
The story is about museum security guard Roger (Christopher Walken) who's favorite painting The Lonely Maiden is being sold to a European museum to make room for a modern installation of Dung art. Roger and two other guards come up with a plan to steal the original painting and replace it with a reproduction. Tony and I got to see a screening of the film and we thought it was hilarious. Make sure to go out and see it when its released and tell your friends too because it probably wont have a huge advertising budget. Here's an article about the film in Artnews.
Thanks to Jennifer Long at Film Art LA for getting me the Maiden Heist project.

Christopher Walken with the painting.

March California Workshops

I'm doing two 3-day figure painting workshops at my studio in California later this month, March 20th - 22nd and 27th - 29th. We will be painting in the studio and outdoors.
You can register online on my website.

Worlds on Fire Opening Night Pics

L to R: Jeremy Lipking, Kris Lewis, Lori Early, Helen Garber, Matthew Bone, Justin Giarla, Paul Chatem, Henry Lewis, Chris Pugliese, Will.i.am, Trae King, Shawn barber

Me with Will.i.am and my dad Ronald Lipking

Joseph Todorovitch

The Wonder Girls

Worlds on Fire: Grammy Week Art Exhibition

I have a piece in the upcoming exhibition of portraits of Grammy nominated artists called Worlds on Fire. It was put together by Will.i.am who is nominated for producer of the year. The show opens Monday Feb 2nd. and runs the whole week. The opening night is for invited guests and Gen Art members only (you can join on their site), as soon as I know the days and times that the show is open to the public I'll post them here.

Will.i.am presents Worlds on Fire, a pop music and art collaboration. Worlds on Fire will be the first art exhibition of its kind featuring portraits of 2009 Grammy nominees as drawn by pop surrealism and representational artists. The exhibition’s opening night celebration will take place on Monday, February 2 from 7:00 PM - 1:00 AM at the Pacific Electric Lofts in downtown Los Angeles. Entertainment to be provided by live D.J. sets from Will.i.am and special guests. Worlds on Fire: Grammy-Nominated Artist Exhibition will be the premier event to kick off Grammy week.

Worlds on Fire was conceived by will.i.am, one of pop music’s most creative, socially conscious and influential artists today, in conjunction with his popular social and political networking site, Dipdive.com. Focused on innovation and creativity, Worlds on Fire will be the only event during Grammy Week bridging the gap between the once separate mediums of performing/recording arts and modern art.

List of artists (and musicians they are doing portraits of):
SAS CHRISTIAN – Riverview, FL (Rihanna)
LORI EARLEY – Red Bank, NJ (Madonna)
COLIN CHRISTIAN – Riverview, FL (M.I.A)
JEREMY LIPKING – Los Angeles, CA (Snoop Dogg)
SHEPARD FAIREY – Los Angeles, CA (Paul McCartney)
IAN JOHNSON – San Francisco, CA (Al Green)
DAVID STOUPAKIS – New York, NY (Will.i.am)
PAUL CHATEM – Los Angeles, CA (Rick Rubin)
RON ENGLISH – Jersey City, NJ (Metallica)
GREG GOSSEL – Minneapolis, MN (Jay-Z)
HENRY LEWIS – San Francisco, CA (Nas)
SHAWN BARBER – San Francisco, CA (Shawn Barber)
TRAVIS LOUIE – Red Hook, NY (Nine Inch Nails)
MATT BONE – Los Angeles, CA (Beyonce)
JOSHUA PETKER – Los Angeles, CA (Radiohead)
VAN ARNO – Los Angeles, CA (BB King)
HEIDI TAILLEFER – Montreal, CAN (Coldplay)
KRIS LEWIS - Los Angeles, CA (Beck)
MIKE MAXWELL – San Deigo, CA (Bruce Springsteen)
GARY BASEMAN & NABIL ELDERKIN - Los Angeles, CA (Kanye West)
CHRIS PUGLIESE – Hoboken, NJ (The Eagles)
HELEN GARBER – Los Angeles, CA (Will.i.am)
SAUL ARMAS – Los Angeles, CA (Lil’ Wayne)
TRAE KING – Los Angeles, CA (Duffy)
NATALIA FABIA–Los Angeles, CA (Pink)
R.C. LIPKING –Los Angeles, CA (Alison Krauss & Robert Plant)
JOSEPH TODOROVITCH – Los Angeles, CA (Alicia Keyes)

Isabella Stewart Gardner Zorn painting restored

I found this interesting blog post by an art conservation student about the restoration of an Anders Zorn painting of a nude woman and child at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. I've seen this painting pre-restoration and it looked kind of dull and hazy. Apparently the painting was censored a while ago when someone painted over the woman's pubic hair. The varnish was also in bad shape and needed to be removed, it looks much better now with the more brilliant color. There are more pics on the original blog post.

This is the UV light photo showing the Zorn painting as he intended it to look, the over painting on the pubes shows up because it is non-florescent and is on top of the varnish.

This is a detail of the censored version.

Figure Studies

I just realized I haven't posted any paintings in a while. Both of these pieces are 16" x 6" oil on linen.

Colorado Academy of Art Update

An update from this post.
A former workshop attendee just emailed me this info about the Colorado Academy of art and Peter Kennedy.
The school is filing Chap. 7 Bankruptcy, if you dont want him absolved of his dept you need to file a complaint with the court by 2/23/09. There is a "meeting of creditors" on 12/23/08 but it is not necessary to attend.

Address:
US Bankruptcy Court
US Custom House
721 19th Street
Denver, CO 80202-2508
# 720 904-7300
Case# 08-28803-SBB