Ripple effect at Sleeping Bear Gallery
Jeff Ripple’s photograph of autumn creeping over Sleeping Bear.
Oil Painter Jeff Ripple will demonstrate his craft at Empire’s Sleeping Bear Gallery on Saturday, July 27, from 1-3 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
Ripple may be “a Florida boy at heart,” but he also embraces the idyllic rolling hills and gentle landscape that characterizes Leelanau County. Even though Ripple is colorblind, he has “always been into art.” He drew and painted as a child, but “when I was about 17, I got to a point where I couldn’t do wildlife anymore so I gave up on it,” focusing instead on writing. He attended colleges in Iowa and Missouri before graduating from Florida Atlantic University with a degree in English. That English degree led Jeff to write natural history books. He has published nine books to date on subjects spanning from Sea Turtles to Manatees and Dugongs to the Florida Keys.
His books feature epic photographs and eloquently written information. Ripple’s photography and articles have also appeared in many publications, including the New York Times, Outside, BBC Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation, Boating Life, Sail, Men’s Fitness, Falcon Guides and Audubon Field Guides. Today he works with a “big wooden camera and very slow film, anywhere from a second to more than a minute” so that he can get a good “sense of activity- swirling water, clouds, wind,” in his photographs, he explains. His camera folds up into a box, which he then fits into a waterproof backpack and takes into the field on his kayak, or shoots from the platform he built on top of his van. This enables him to really get out into the wilderness and capture some images many of us would normally never see. Read more about Jeff Ripple in our archives.
Sleeping Bear Gallery opened last year after Heather Caverly purchased the Empire Clipper Building across Front Street from the Village Office. Together with curator Becky Willis, she aims to turn it into a haven that features artists in residence, demonstrations and lectures and displays of unique art including metals, wood, glass, fibers, paintings, sculptures, ceramics and photography. Caverly and her husband Mark live in the newly renovated area behind the gallery, and Willis occupies the apartment upstairs.
“I want to provide a space for aspiring artists to have a place to get off the ground,” said Caverly, who works mostly in metals. “This is an environment we love and where we can help other artists demo and sell their work.” Read more about the Sleeping Bear Gallery in our archives.
