— I have an innate interest in the natural world around me, field, forest, and wetland inspires my work. I combine traditional weaving techniques with various plant fibre to create contemporary forms that arise from a deep curiosity and an emergent understanding of my chosen materials.

Ralph Simpson was born in Hillsborough, New Brunswick. He was employed as a Forest Research Biologist for many years.

After retirement, he returned to school at NBCCD to study Visual Art. His focus now is artistic, and he still spends many hours in the woods as he explores the potential of plant and wood fibre to create baskets and sculpture. His chosen media are black ash, willow, maple, cedar bark, and plant fibres endemic to New Brunswick. In collecting plant fibre, he uses harvest principles that embrace environmental integrity and sustainability.

 Ralph combines his deep respect and study of traditional weaving techniques with his own innovations. He enjoys utilizing a wide variety of materials and techniques as part of his artistic practice of creating work that focuses on form, process, and materiality.

Inspired by the local environment and nature’s forms he creates contemporary sculptural forms. He is a full-time artist and works out of his studio in Fredericton, NB.

— I work with an array of locally gathered plant materials, both woody and herbaceous, including cedar, ash, maple, willow, various bark, roots, sedges, rushes, and cattail, as well as many cultivated annual and perennial plants. These include iris blades, lily, Dracena, crocosmia and papyrus. My work varies in form and style, but what resonates in all my pieces is the underlying investigation into ways that plant material can be used to spark interest or insight into nature.