RYE TIPPETT

Be it over land or water, Tippett’s vast skies stir the imagination. Hovering in his paintings’ skies are adventure-seeking dogs, ghost-like sperm whales, and other animals mixed with relics of the past – from historical warships to vintage cars. Tippett finds inspiration in literature and history, machines and inventions, pairing the wonder of the natural world with his favorite manmade creations. In these Romanticist-inspired paintings, the smallest figures on the ground – be it a person or an animal – find whales and other larger-than-life elements in their encounter with the sublime. Ultimately, Tippett’s works ask about the passing of time, and the myriad elements that hover between heaven and earth. Is it a ghost? A glorious machine now retired? A dream or memory that lives on? And how is it that when we look up at the night sky they sometimes replace the moon?

A Bucks county native, Tippett is a largely a self-taught artist who scours art history books and visits museums. He is represented in numerous private collections and has exhibited regionally. His painting, "Bluebird," was accepted in the National American Artists League 88th Grand National Exhibition (2016) and “Hung out to Dry” won the Phillips Mill Community Association Award in 2017. His paintings were published in the fall 2022 issue of “Under the Gum Tree,” a literary arts magazine featuring creative non-fiction and visual art.