Lisi Martin is a Spanish artist and illustrator famous for her highly detailed and romanticized pictures of children.

Lisi was born in Barcelona, Catalonia in 1944. She is the younger of 2 children, having an older brother. She was a quiet child and claims to have started drawing at the age of 4 as a way to express her imagination. There was no realization in her early years that she had any specific or unusual talent, but she had a clear love for art and continued to pursue it throughout her childhood.

In 1960, Lisi began formal art studies at the Massana School of Art in Barcelona. While she obviously learned a great deal at this school, she is quick to point out that the type of illustration for which she is famous is not something that was taught at art schools in the early 1960s.

Lisi began working for a cartoon studio in 1963 and continued drawing in her spare time, including designing her own Christmas cards. After working for a couple of Spanish companies, Lisi made a breakthrough in her art career when she joined Swedish company Pictura in 1983.

Pictura was founded in 1969 and is Scandinavia’s largest distributor of greeting cards to retail stores. They were introduced to Lisi at the Frankfurt Fair and instantly saw the potential in her artwork. Pictura (www.pictura.se) now distributes Lisi’s work on greeting cards, prints, mugs, cookie tins and more. Through an exclusive licensing arrangement with Italian company Dolfi, Lisi’s art is also represented as 3-dimensional figurines. Dolfi produces wood carved interpretations of Lisi’s art and also reproduces those same figurines in porcelain, cold cast resin and chalkware. They even produce smaller versions that serve as the clappers inside crystal bells.

Lisi lives together with her husband, Ferran, in Barcelona. They have 2 adult boys, Gerard and Eduard.

For further information about Lisi and her works, please check out the wonderful Lisi Martin fan portal at www.lisimartin.com

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