Meet The Artist
Simon Ripley
Linocut monoprints
Simon Ripley makes linocut monoprints on handmade Japanese paper using an 1850’s Columbian Press.
Each print is unique - a one off - hence the name monoprint.
A piece of lino, or wood is cut by hand using gouges and other tools. The surface of the lino is inked and then pressed onto the paper. The lino is then cut again, re-inked with a new colour and printed again. This process is repeated several times to give a build up of ink and to create the design. Each time wet ink is printed upon wet ink and the whole image is created in one session.
Whilst the prints do have titles, it is important that these do not prevent the viewer from finding their own interpretation and meaning in the marks and imagery of the print.
My prints are always monoprints - each is unique and emerges from a purely intuitive process that is ritualistic in its form. My approach is based around the idea that we are not human beings living a spiritual experience but rather that we are spiritual beings living a human experience. My work makes reference to things that catch my eye in the world around me : it might be an element of the landscape, a domestic object, an iconic form. The prints are made as an entirely intuitive response to these experiences and ideas and whilst I may not know the final outcome when I start, each has a germ of an idea at the outset.
The colours, shapes, marks and forms in the work are like signs which I hope will trigger memories or other connections. These signs are in conversation with each other. They are like Japanese Haiku poems - epigrammatic, visual poems giving a wide breadth of possible interpretation.
Hilla Rebay states “Non objective paintings are prophets in spiritual life” Ripley’s work is a meditation on a higher reality and to quote Tapies, “an attempt to see the richness of our resources”.
C.V.
DoB : 2nd March 1962. Dover, England.
Fine Art Education :
Islington College of Further Education. London 1990 - 91
East London Polytechnic. Diploma in Combined Arts 1991 - 92
Plymouth University Faculty of Art & Design. Fine Art Printmaking
BA (Hons) 2i. 1992 - 95. Dissertation entitled "Art & Healing".
Winner of Bridget McCrum Prize 1995.
Selected Exhibtions :
Royal West of England Academy Print Exhibition. March 2000
Contemporary Print Gallery, Goodge Place, London. Summer 2000
Beatrice Royal Contemporary Art. Summer 2000
Stark Gallery, Lee Green, London. November 2000
Harley Gallery, Welbeck, Nottinghamshire. June 2001
Rowe and Maw Solicitors, London. Summer 2001
Printmakers Gallery, St Ives, Cornwall. March 2002
Royal College of Pathology. London. Winter 2002
Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton. 2002
Wahle Contemporary Fine Art. Affordable Art Fair. London. April 2003
The Affordable Art Fair, Spring Collection 2003 /4
Casa Mia Modern Life and Art, Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. 2003/4
Artonomy Fine Art. Truro, Cornwall. October 2005, January 2006 & 2007
Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital. February 2006
Black Swan Arts. Frome, Somerset. Open Arts Exhibition March 2006
The Burrows Gallery, Birmingham March 2006 and January 2007
Arflex Shop Tokyo and Osaka November 2006
McHardy Coombs. London August 2006
Devon Guild of Craftsmen February 2007
Brook Gallery. Devon. July 2007
Istorm Exeter. May 2008
Work in the collections of : Victoria & Albert Museum, Bank of England, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, Exeter University, Somerset County Council, South Devon Healthcare Trust. Nottingham City Hospital, Starbucks, Direct Action Centre for Peace and Memory, Cape Town, South Africa.
Related information :
Printmaking Lecturer (part time) Visual Arts and Fine Art degree programmes at University of Plymouth and Exeter College
Centre Director. Crediton Arts Centre. 2004 - 2005.
Founder / Director of Double Elephant Print Workshop, Old Bakery Studios, Spicer Road, Exeter. EX1 1TA. 1997 – 2005. www.doubleelephant.org.uk
Project Co-ordinator for arts in education SPACE projects. DepARTure - Dorset County Council 2001 – 02
ALIAS contact. 2005 -
Supporting artist led initiatives. An Arts Council England South West project.