Rosalie Ripaldi Shane

Rosalie Ripaldi Shane was born in Boston and studied art at Massachusetts College of Art, the DeCordova Museum School and Brandeis University. She is a member of the Copley Society, the Cambridge Art Association, and the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association, where she has served on the board since 1992.

Ms. Shane paints in oil with highly saturated color and thick impasto. Color and texture are her passion, and never so much as in her inimitable and iconic cupcake paintings. The ‘frosting' of these pieces is thickly applied with a palette knife using colors reminiscent of candy and french pastries. They look good enough to eat. (Indeed, she serves real cupcakes, which she bakes herself, at all her openings.) As for her flower studies, one can almost smell their fragrance, with each petal defined by its sculptural shape. Landscapes flow with lush colors and an expansive line; seascapes have windswept waves, exquisitely painted water and clouded horizons. Other subjects include soaring seagulls, great waving American flags, and, occasionally, surrealistic paintings with hidden meanings one must discover themselves. She hopes the viewer will ‘dive into’ her vibrant, colorful world and experience its vitality.

The artist has exhibited for forty years in the Boston area and New England, including shows at the Copley Society, the Cambridge Art Association, the Concord Art Association, the DeCordova Museum School, the Danforth Museum, and the Brattleboro Museum in Vermont. She has shown her work since 1983 at the Old Sculpin Gallery in Edgartown and at other venues on the island of Martha’s Vineyard.

Ms. Shane lives in Boston in the winter months and has been a summer resident of Edgartown, Massachusetts since 1979. Her work is owned by patrons throughout the United States and Europe