13 different cats are depicted in this charming -vibrant hand painting

A framed oil painting on canvas panel by Self Taught Outsider Surrealist Folk Artist Gloria Antoinette Laposka (1922-2015)

Said Laposka: “The paintings are my life. These are the stories of my life,”

A unique and vibrant colored , hand painted oil on canvas board Folk Art work of art depicting thirteen (13) cats as they scramble about the water barrel. Hand painted in folk art style with vibrant colors as only Laposka could execute.

Signed Laposka below one of the barrel staves.

Dimensions:
Frame: 22 inches high and 28 inches wide
Site: 17 Inches high and 23 inches wide
original gold style frame

Provenance: Laposka estate / New England collection.

Artist History: Gloria Antoinette Laposka (1922-2015)

Born in Brooklyn, New York, she was an acclaimed photographer exhibiting at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Later she would transform herself into a self taught surrealist Folk Art painter specializing in bright lively colorful crowds that often evinced a delightful sense of humor. Even when an unfortunate stroke resulted in a life ending stay in a rehab facility, she continued to delight other residents with her paintings.

“The paintings are my life. These are the stories of my life,”
Laposka, a long-term care resident said about the exhibit of some of her paintings at the facility.

The Bethel facility exhibit included several of her photographs, including dreamy multi-exposure shots of a ballerina and a large study of facial expressions of famous photographer Edward Steichen.
But it was the more than 20 oil paintings in the exhibit — of hundreds she has done — that showed the tapestry of what Laposka called a life that “has been exciting.”

The exhibit came about after Bethel Health Care’s recreation director, Lisa Plumb spoke with residents about their wishes. “We were talking about the patients’ bucket lists, wishes that never came to be.”
Plumb said Laposka’s wish was to share her paintings with other residents and with children. ”
“She wanted to share her enthusiasm with them.”

Sharing with residents wasn’t difficult. Many, including 89-year-old Anne Dachenhausen came to the one-day exhibit on the first floor of Bethel Health Care.

“They’re marvelous, breathtaking, and all so different,” Dachenhausen said about the paintings. Her favorite was two women bathing a baby in a wooden tub. “She’s very talented,” Dachenhausen said of Laposka.
To fulfill Laposka’s wish to share her artwork with children, fourth- and fifth-graders from Johnson School came to the health care center to see the show in the morning. Laposka told them about her paintings and encouraged them to become artists. “She told us, ‘Never give up,'” 11-year-old Tyler Plumb said. Tyler called Laposka “very creative” and particularly liked “all the colors she uses.”

Before coming to the center, Laposka lived in Brookfield for 42 years and had a photography studio there. She took up photography at the age of 19, when she “bought a camera for $3 at a pawn shop.” Laposka said one of her favorite paintings in the exhibit was a large street scene showing an apartment building in the Ridgewood section of Brooklyn, N.Y., where she grew up.

“My aunt had a candy store,”

Laposka said about the shop on one side of the painting. Laposka left home at age 16, and the painting shows a young woman on the roof of the apartment building with a young man ahead of her, carrying a suitcase. “He wasn’t my boyfriend,” Laposka said, just a friend.In many of her paintings, Laposka shows her sense of humor. She was a member of Weight Watchers, and one piece shows women belonging to the group in front of a display of delicious-looking cakes. A wheel of fortune is about to be spun to see who wins them.

As Laposka, who was in a wheelchair before she passed, left one of the rooms where her paintings were exhibited, she looked at a canvas and said, “How you doing, ladies?” The painting showed several women in old-fashioned bathing suits standing in the water near a beach and some male admirers nearby. Laposka said the painting is part of a series about a seaport town. She has more of the series in storage, including a painting of a restaurant called “The Green Dolphin”.
Laposka said there are many other memories on canvas that she’d like to show the public. “I hope there’s another show to get the others out. All the stories all go together”. (Thank you to Newstimes, Danbury, Connecticut)

We will be offering more of Laposka’s Self Taught Outsider Folk Art in the near future.

Schneible Fine Arts has been collecting and dealing in authentic American Self Taught Outsider Folk Art including hand painted one-of-kind works of art, wood carvings, and pyrography works of art for more than thirty years. All works of art are guaranteed authentic and as described.