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Stats: Born in Pittsburg Pennsylvania in 1929, the day before the stock market crashed. Currently retired but still painting. Medium: Opaque watercolors while occasionally using acrylics. Research for this write-up was obtained from the following sources: |
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Last modified: March 10, 2018 Send mail to with questions or comments about this web site. |
Charles Lewis "Chuck" Ripper has
been interested in art and nature all of his life. He has gained a reputation for outstanding wildlife illustrations. His works have appeared in numerous
magazines, catalogues, books, and on stationery products but it is his illustrations done for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF) and Red Rose Tea that
endear him to tea drinkers. Ripper has been published on the cover of the L.L. Bean catalogue on seven different occasions. The NWF awarded Ripper the
coveted Peregrine Award in 1989 for 30 years of dedicated service and for providing NWF with over 575 stamp paintings. The U.S. Postal Service commissioned
him to 
create several stamp issues as well. The latter comprised
a sheet of 50 stamps that was voted the most popular issue of 1987. Ripper's passion for detail and accuracy have made him a sought after commercial artist.
He is known for his love of the subject matter and he does painstaking research for his paintings. Interestingly, Ripper said the following, about keeping
track of the artwork he has painted, “Sometimes these things just disappear into a closet or a yard sale and you never know where they go.” Ripper’s paintings
have been used on more than 100 magazine covers including L.L. Bean, Fur-Fish-Game, Virginia Wildlife, Southern Outdoors, North Carolina Wildlife, Pennsylvania
Game News and Oklahoma Outdoors. His paintings have been shown in 15 museums and galleries. Ripper illustrated 25 books for publishers including the National
Audubon Society, National Geographic Society, Readers Digest Books, Houghton Mifflin, Alfred Knopf, Museum of Natural History (Denver) and William Morrow.