About

“Painting means learning to see”, says Philipp Ringli (*1972). “And learning to paint is a way of life.” He was the first born son of a lofty inventor and a farm girl and grew up in a dog kennel (Great Danes). If you must know, the town is called Eschlikon. He plunged into the sea of colours and shapes, when he was very young (like all toddlers). He went to study at the Zurich University of the Arts and became a graphic designer. His initial professional years lead him to eascape Switzerland. Armed with only his portfolio, he flew to New York in early 1997. He received Tibor Kalman‘s recommendation, which seemed to helped a little in job interviews. It was during those years, that he started his artistic collaborations with Cynthia Karalla and H.R. Giger. He designed the logo for the Giger room at the legendary Limelight club. But NY felt like a time machine stuck in fast forward gear. Seeking peace, he returned to Appenzell in Switzerland, where he founded his own design agency, Sichtwerk. His passion for the outdoors and the mountains made him create Peakhunter, the world’s first digital summit log. As you can see, it took him a while to realise, that his vocation as an artist was not in the world of business and technology. After pondering long and hard the question of what gave him meaning in life, he came back to his original passion: drawing and painting. Studying portraiture and figurative art with Charles Cecil in Florence, made him a firm believer in working from life. “A painting is made up of more than canvas and paint, it carries the energy of the moment.”, he says. After Florence he also started to explore pleinair landscape painting. He works as a professional painter. He is a Newcomer member of visarte.ch, the Swiss association for professional visual artists.