How Visual Artist Ronan Tipan Re-Discovered His Passion and Began Creating Art That INSPIRES EMOTION

Visual artist Ronan Tipan was never “that kid that would always have a sketchbook with them,” he recalls. Growing up in the Philippines, there were priorities for his working-class family that took precedence over art. Still, he says, “I remember being the kid in class that everyone always asks to draw something.”

Passion and pragmatism

When his family immigrated to the United States when Ronan was 14, they settled just outside Chicago in Skokie, IL. There, he remembers his art teacher asking him if he planned to go to art school. With his childhood experiences fresh in his mind, and his family’s future on his heart, he told her no—he needed to pursue a career that would help support them.

So he set his love for art aside and went into finance.

Ronan’s passion for visual art lived within him, though, and years later he found himself at the art store, paint and canvas in hand.

“I think there was something going on in my life that I was like, you know what, I want to start painting again.” He remembers the first piece he painted: a meandering gold path framed by lush trees at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. “It’s where my girlfriend first said ‘I love you,’” he remembers.

That painting now hangs on the wall of the home they share together.

Calm, freedom, and the effects of art

Ronan felt liberated, he recalls, through the act of creating something, focusing on a project outside his 9-to-5. He enrolled in a class at School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and began learning the skills that would build on his natural talent.

His style, he says, is “simple”—he strives to create images that instill a sense of calm in their viewers. “I think I want my paintings [to be such that when] you hang it in your bedroom . . . it calms you so much that it makes you fall asleep.” His favorite color, blue, gives him that feeling, he says, as does the action of painting itself. 

[IMAGE: “Spring” - Four Seasons Series by Ronan Tipan]

“I just feel this sense of calmness . . . in my body or my heart during the process of creating my art, so I guess I’d like for my viewers to feel the same way when they look at them—maybe for them to find calmness in a world full of chaos.”

It’s not hard to imagine that calm would be an important value for Ronan in art and in life, having moved across the world to a country with an unfamiliar language and a new culture, all during his eighth-grade year, a traditionally turbulent time for even the most ordinary of teens. Those kinds of experiences are stored in our hearts and bodies and they affect us throughout our lives.

Valuing sustainability

Growing up in a low-income family has also made him value the tools and materials he uses. “I’ve had to work so hard to get to a place where I’m financially more comfortable,” he says, and “it’s made me realize how valuable my resources are.” This mindset has led him to strive to create sustainable art. “I try to maximize [materials] as much as I can and minimize my waste,” he explains.

Ronan even has a series he calls “Un-Wasted Paints,” a sort of happy accident of sustainability. “I created ‘Un-Wasted Paints’ because I didn’t want to just throw out paints I used in a specific project,” he recounts. Not wanting to discard the paint leftover in nearly-empty tubes, he put them to use. Inspired by the materials in hand, he would “just paint and see where it goes.”

Painting with oil on canvas reminds Ronan of a conductor shaping the sounds of an orchestra, creating the flow and tempo of the music with their baton.

Inspiration

And while Ronan’s favorite medium to work with is oil, his drive for minimizing waste has also inspired several mixed-media pieces. One series, “Spots,” was born when he discovered a box of chads left over from a massive paper hole-punching project. They were bound for the landfill, he knew—so he took them home and used them to create a new series instead.

Like the discovery of that box of chads, inspiration strikes Ronan at unexpected—and often impractical—times.

“I get inspired at an ill-opportune time ALL THE TIME!” he laughs. When that happens, he uses his Notes phone app to write down as many details about the idea as he can with the limited time he has. That way, he can look back at his notes later on and remember what the idea was and “some kind of description as to why I thought it would be a good idea.”

[IMAGE: “Rainbow” - Spots Series by Ronan Tipan]

The artistic process

When he has time to work on the project, his process varies depending on the type of work he’s creating. 

“If I’m creating a portrait or representational piece,” he explains, his process includes sketching a rough outline in a notebook to get a feel for the scale and the placement of various pieces present within the image. With that information, he selects the proper canvas and stretchers and spends some time—10 minutes or more—simply exploring the blank canvas. As he looks at the canvas, he visualizes the painting. “I sit in front of the canvas and just look, visualizing what I’m gonna make and see how I can achieve it, what colors to use, et cetera.”

Then, with his image clearly in mind, he begins to paint.

[IMAGE: “Back” - Torso Series by Ronan Tipan (in progress on left, final piece on right)]

He works differently with abstract art, though: “When it comes to more abstract pieces . . . I kinda throw away the logic part of my brain and just let my hands do the talking.”

Ronan’s broad range of work exemplifies the flexibility of his intellect, creativity, and curiosity. Whether representational or abstract, Ronan says he doesn’t “want my art to be studied,” dismissing the idea that viewers should dig for “meaning” in art. Instead, he says, viewers should focus on what they feel as they take it in.

And as for artists, he says it’s important to “create for you first . . . When you create something that you like, that’s being true to yourself, the audience will follow.”

You can find Ronan’s work on his website www.ronanart.com and on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ronanart.

Written by: Cathlyn Melvin