Fine art and the stories behind them
The Vita works with a small group of carefully chosen fine artists to showcase their original art and stories.
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Plein air sketch by Kira Mountjoy-Pepka of the Middlegrounds Park overlooking downtown Toledo, OH. View of the Maumee River and city skyline. Oil on canvas, 20x16 inches. Signed. Unframed.
About the artist
Kira Mountjoy-Pepka is an award-winning artist whose work pushes the vibrancy of color found in quiet still lifes in an unlabored, alla prima style. Born in 1982, Kira has worked in oils since she was 16 years old and her work is on permanent display in public and private collections around the country. She currently lives in Ohio.
"Iron Teapot" 8x4 inches, two pieces by sculptor Tara Joshi. This surrealist sculpture is a ceramic teapot glazed to look like iron, with a female nipple and areola for a lid. Lighter than it looks but difficult to open, it is both an erotic and hushed commentary on female bodies, desire and strength. Signed.
Original oil pastel and gouache figure drawing by celebrated, twentieth-century California landscape painter, Ronald Shap. Vibrant sketch of sitting nude woman with yellow blanket. 22.5x17.5 inches on glossy paper. Unframed.
This piece is a part of Shap's '80s Interiors collection, a vibrant Neo-Pop series of nudes and still lifes rendered in neon or pastel colors painted between 1981 and 1992. His erotic and sometimes grotesque nudes are reminiscent of Egon Schiele, and the Miami Vice / Memphis Design pastel trend that dominated the 1980s art world can be clearly seen in his still lifes which remind us of Henri Matisse in his Fauvism period.
Stray marks throughout, made during the creative process. We do not consider these flaws, just a natural result of use of this medium, but point them out for the benefit our online guests. Paper is high gloss white - any graying of the white background is due to our imperfect photography skills.
Ronald Shap was born in Toledo, OH and lived most of his life in California. The brother of acclaimed portrait artist Sylvia Shap, he was a scholarship award graduate at the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1964 and completed graduate study in painting at the University of Nebraska and Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1967. He was a visiting artist and instructor at BGSU in 1973-74 and worked out of his Los Angeles studio and taught drawing and anatomy at Citrus College until his retirement in 2005.
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