"I branched out on anything I wanted to paint or any exploration I wanted to try"
LAS VEGAS, NV, August 25, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Marquis Who's Who, the world's premier publisher of biographical profiles, is proud to name Clayton Rippey a Lifetime Achiever. An accomplished listee, Mr. Rippey celebrates many years' experience in his professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes he has accrued in his field. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
The celebrated Mr. Rippey is a prolific artist known for his paintings of desert landscapes and water scenes, as well as often unorthodox sculpture, mosaics, prints and murals. He was a noted professor of art at Bakersfield College for 31 years, and his art has resided in numerous private collections and been enthusiastically exhibited, notably in the gallery of his friends Todd and Maris Madigan for many years. With Maris' passing in 2016, the collection came up for sale in Bakersfield, California in May of that year, featuring both classic and abstract Rippey works.
Born in LaGrande, Oregon, to Harry and Inez Rippey in 1923, Mr. Rippey was inspired from a young age when he attended the 1937 World's Fair with famous painters showcasing their work. He later majored in music with Northwestern University in Illinois for one year before joining the U.S. military during World War II, earning a combat infantry badge, an ETO ribbon with three clusters, a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. After the war, he changed to an art major and attended Whitworth College from 1946 to 1947, ultimately earning a BA and an MA from Stanford University in 1949.
Mr. Rippey conducted postgraduate work at the Instituto Allende in Mexico, among numerous institutions, and was welcomed by Bakersfield College in 1949 as a professor of art. In 1967, he spent one year as a professor of art at Maui Community College in Hawaii before returning to Bakersfield, producing art for much of his working life. Mr. Rippey was married to Marcia Sanford in 1946, and had two children, John and Barbara.
In 1955, Mr. Rippey established the Rippey Gallery in Bakersfield, and he was also briefly the owner of Sea Spirit Gallery in Hawaii. He has done 125 one man shows over the course of his career, and was notably featured by the Italian galleries of Mario Valente in Milan and Galleria Penanti in Florence, as well as the Babuino Gallery in Rome, the Wailuku Library, the Lucian Labaudt in San Francisco, the Circulo de Belles Artes in Spain, and the Pioneer and Hagen Museum in California.
Each year, Mr. Rippey contributes a one-man show to the Cezanne International in Bakersfield. The Madigan collection contained many experimental pieces. "I branched out on anything I wanted to paint or any exploration I wanted to try, and to heck with it. But it caught on and people bought the paintings anyway. I was very lucky in that respect," said Mr. Rippey in a 2016 interview for Bakersfield.com. In 2015, Frontier Homestead showcased a collection of his North American landscapes.
Mr. Rippey was recently exhibited in "Images of Vanishing Nature," an international collaboration of works drawing attention to endangered animals. He has been a member of the Wilderness Society, Habitat for Humanity, the Nature Conservancy, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and the National Wildlife Society. For his prolific artistic output and generous spirit, Mr. Rippey was selected for inclusion in two volumes of Who's Who in the West in 1992 and 1994. He enjoys swimming, ceramics, music, hiking, and travel. With the closing of the Madigans' gallery, Mr. Rippey is currently showcasing his abstract work in other galleries, and alternating between two studios in Las Vegas and Cedar City, Utah.
In recognition of outstanding contributions to his profession and the Marquis Who's Who community, Mr. Rippey has been featured on the Marquis Who's Who Lifetime Achievers website. Please visit www.ltachievers.com for more information about this honor.
Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America , Marquis Who's Who has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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