Pep Vila (1944-2010) - Vall Blanca

The artwork is signed by the artist at the bottom.

On the back, it is again signed, dated 1980, and titled.

The condition is good.

The work is presented framed.

Work dimensions: 46 cm in height x 55 cm in width.

Frame measurements: 66 cm in height x 75 cm in width.

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Artist biography

Pep Vila was a Catalan landscape painter born in Vic in 1944, into a family of small merchants closely connected to the rural environment of Osona. Since his adolescence, he drew farmhouses, streams, and cultivated fields around the Plana de Vic, and in the late 1960s, he studied at Escola Massana and at Llotja de Barcelona, where he came into contact with informalism and new figuration.

Training and early years

In the 1970s, he alternated occasional jobs with stays in Olot and Montseny, where he began to develop his own language, halfway between realism and expressive stain.
He first exhibited in a small gallery in Vic around 1974, and shortly after, in regional halls in Manlleu, Torelló, and Granollers, winning some local awards for quick painting.

Pictorial style

Her painting focused almost exclusively on the landscape: mists of the Plana de Vic, Pyrenean peaks, and isolated farmhouses at sunset.
He mainly worked with oil and acrylic, with very thick impasto and a palette of ochres, muted greens, and rust reds, always seeking atmosphere and light rather than topographical detail.

Artistic maturity

In the 1980s and 1990s, he created series dedicated to winter in Osona and to rural roads, which he presented at various exhibitions in Barcelona and Girona.
Not being a celebrity artist, he maintained a loyal clientele of local collectors and commissions for landscapes of family farmhouses, which allowed him to dedicate himself almost entirely to painting.

Final years and death

In his later years, he reduced the size of his works and became interested in mixed media on panel, incorporating sands and materials from the landscape itself.
He passed away in 2010 after a brief illness, leaving behind a substantial body of views of Vic and its surrounding area in workshops and homes across the region.

Legacy:

Today, their role could be understood as that of a landscape artist with a primarily regional scope, appreciated for sensitively documenting the territorial changes of Osona throughout the second half of the 20th century.
His work, mostly dispersed in private collections, is mainly found in Vic and neighboring villages, where his way of capturing the fog and the low winter lights is still appreciated.