168 http://www.AmericanArtCollector.com
AWARD
WINNERLuminous Lands
Ripple was the Third Prize winner of International Artist magazine’s Challenge No. 108, Landscapes.JEFF RIPPLE
Micanopy, FL • [email protected] • http://www.jeffrippleart.comA
rtist Jeff Ripple has always found inspiration in nature
and the landscape. He is enchanted the most by dramatic
skies, which often appear in his paintings with marshy or
mountainous terrain. He spends time outside analyzing the
forms of the clouds and how they affect the light on the land or
water below. Many of Ripple’s latest works are derived from his
own imagination, with the locations being real but the elements
of the scene carefully chosen and modified by the artist.
“I may do a sketch at noon, make careful note of my compass
direction, and then do a series of paintings based on that sketch
from various times of day,” he says. “A painting may be imag-
ined but I want it realistic and believable. It is not always the
place, but the idea and spirit of the place I am trying to paint.”
Ripple’s ideas tend to come from the local landscapes that
surround him in Micanopy, Florida, as well as from his travels.
Places such as Tuscawilla Lake, Waccasassa River, the South
Carolina Lowcountry and the Appalachian Mountains have
all informed his artwork, such as in his sweeping painting
Morning Light, Hunting Island Marshes. “I really wanted to do
a wide, panoramic Lowcountry painting, and this scene with
the delicate light, high tide and cloud shelf was irresistible,”
Ripple explains. “I found the curve of the cloud shelf had to
be painted with precision or the impact of the composition
was compromised.”
Ripple, a self-taught artist, is represented by I. Pinckney
Simons Gallery, Crossnore Fine Arts Gallery and his Ripple
Effect Studio & Gallery.11
Moonlit Night over the Low Country,
oil on linen mounted on board,
8 x 16"2
Late Day in the Tidal Marsh, Edisto
Island, oil on board, 16 x 20"2