artist printmaker
Simon Ripley
Simon Ripley is co-founder and now a Director of Exeter’s Double Elephant Print Workshop. Double Elephant, now in its 20th year, is a community workshop offering teaching and access to printmaking. The workshop has developed a strong reputation for printmaking projects with vulnerable adults, printmaking in schools, in prisons and with hard to reach communities. Recently Simon has been working with patients suffering from Dementia at Franklyn Hospital in Exeter and with men at risk of suicide in Torbay.
Simon makes mono print linocuts from his garden studio using an 1850’s Columbian Press. His community based work inspires an artistic response in his own prints – his use of strong motifs and colours. The aim is to create work which allows for contemplation and Simon hopes that the audience for his work will find connections, memories and stories of their own in his work.
Simon grew up in Leicestershire and went to school in Lutterworth. Having studied Fine Art at Plymouth University he has now settled with his family in the South West.