Hannah Lipsey Artist Biography
Early Life & Education
Hannah Lipsey grew up near Liverpool, England, and went on to earn a BA (Hons) Fine Art degree at the University of Wales Institute Cardiff in 2011, specialising initially in abstract landscape painting. After university, Hannah worked various non-art jobs from retail to teaching before life circumstances led her abroad.
Her life between 2018 and 2020, spent living in South Carolina, USA, proved transformative for her artistic journey. It was during this period that she began to experiment seriously with pencil drawing, ultimately rediscovering her passion for art.
Discovery of Realism & Transition to Drawing
What began as a simple graphite portrait of her niece in 2016 sparked a profound shift in Hannah’s creative path. By 2021, upon returning to the UK, she committed to being a full-time artist, launching a commission-based portrait business and gradually evolving her style to focus on the textures, materials, and reflections of inanimate objects.
Over time, Hannah discovered what truly excited her: the challenge of recreating shine, metallic surfaces and the illusions of light and realism. This dedication to metallic hyper-realism is now the hallmark of her practice.
Artistic Style & Creative Process
Hannah Lipsey’s work is rooted in hyperrealist coloured-pencil drawing, focusing on reflective surfaces, metallic objects, and intricate textures. Each piece typically begins with hundreds of reference photographs taken under varied lighting conditions and from multiple angles - often over 500 - from which she distils a final composition.
Her methodology involves painstaking pencil layering, careful attention to tonal contrast, light and shadow, and a commitment to capturing the subtle interplay between material, light and space. The result are drawings that aren’t just representations, but illusions - hyperrealism that compels viewers to pause, reflect, and sometimes reach out, as if to touch the surface.
Exhibitions, Commissions & Artistic Vision
Since fully dedicating herself to her art practice, Hannah has exhibited at major events such as the Affordable Art Fair London (2023) and the Affordable Art Fair New York (2024), as well as specialist hyperrealist shows such as the 2023 exhibition at Byard Art in Cambridge.
Her work has attracted a global collector base. For Hannah, art isn’t merely decoration, it’s a tool for evoking emotion, wonder, nostalgia - a way for viewers to find the extraordinary in everyday objects through shine, texture and illusion.