Rip’s Studies:
San Jose State, San Jose California- Commercial Art
U.C. Berkeley- AB, MA, Ed.D
C.C.A.C. Oakland- Commerical Art
Scuola di Belle Arte, Rome- Portrait Painting
Parsons School of Design, N.Y.- Illustration, Cartooning
Rip’s Teaching:
Blackburn College, Illinois
Monterey Peninsula College, California
Laney College, California
Rip’s Awards:
Honorary Degree- Doctor of Fine Arts, Blackburn College, IL 2003
Rip’s Influences:
Andrei Rublev Cezanne
Masaccio Klimt
Botticelli Egon Schiele
Giorgione Modigliani
Titian Matisse
El Greco Goya
ABOUT RIP Matteson
From the Carmel Art Association’s retrospective show, March 2012
Rip Matteson devoted his life to the world of art as a teacher, cartoonist, artist, and promoter of fine art. He prepared for this calling with studies in art and education at San Jose State University, the California College of Arts and Crafts, and the University of California at Berkeley where he earned a Doctorate degree. Later he studied at the Scuola di Belle Arte in Rome and the Parsons School of Design in New York.
During his career he was awarded numerous awards for his artistic endeavors including the Phelan Award for Achievement in Art, the El Cerrito Memorial Award, recognition as an artist by the Carmel Arts Festival, and an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Blackburn College for his contribution to the foundation of its art department. He helped establish the art department at the newly founded Monterey Peninsula College and afterward strengthened the art department at Laney College in Oakland. He was accepted by the Carmel Art Association in 1949 and served on its Board and was its President during the early 1960’s.
Although he began his artistic journey living a peripatetic life while getting his education and starting his art career, he was the first to say that, "the bohemian life of sacrifice and starvation is not a prerequisite to artistic success. An artist can find beauty without suffering .... " It is said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and Rip had an eye for beauty. This was particularly manifest in his work during his latter years in which he devoted most of his efforts to figurative painting of the female form. During this phase of his more than six decade career, he articulated the beauty he saw with a passion and joy that is evident in his work.
It is no easy task to represent the large body of work he generated with fewer than two dozen paintings displayed in this retrospective show, but they demonstrate his unique style and talent whether he applied it to a landscape, still life or human figure. It is an interesting side note that many of Rip's paintings were inscribed on the back of the canvases with quotations from renowned poets such as Robert Browning, William Yeats, and Ralph W. Emerson. In his way Rip was a poet who employed a brush rather than a pen, but in any case, it was his way of sharing his view of truth and beauty. That was his calling and that is how he will be remembered.
Where to find Rip’s Work:
Tatsaki Gallery: Kensington, CA (by appointment only) or by email at ripmatteson@sonic.net
J. Howell Fine Art: (707) 431-2684 Healdsburg, CA. Email JHFA@comcast.net or online at www.jhowellfineart.com
Lost Art Salon: San Francisco, CA or online at www.lostartsalon.com
Lulu: online at lulu.com
Saatchi Art: online at www.saatchiart.com/tatsaki
Chicago Fine Art Company: online at www.chicagofineart.org