Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Impressionistic - realistic art of Susie Gách Peelle

Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Painter Susie Gách Peelle, granddaughter of Hungarian sculptor Steven Gach (Gách István) and daughter of Hungarian/American sculptor/painter George Gach (Gách György) might have been born with a paint brush in her hand. She was surrounded by artistic work ever since she could remember. She was drawing at 5, painting at 12. She posed for her father, observed his lessons, demos, and outdoor classes. She was commissioned to do 20x24 oil portraits of her schoolmates while still in high school.

Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Though her father was an academically trained artist he did not insist on a strict early training for his daughter. Susie was allowed to observe, experiment, and follow her own developmental path. She was encouraged to study works of great masters, she is still doing it today. In due course, Susie obtained her BA from C.W. Post, NY, and then her MFA from Instituto Allende/Universidad de Guanajuato in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Throughout her career she attended various classes in search of techniques and forms of expression.

Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Susie's good fortune was that she started drawing so early and appreciated the importance of it. Drawing is a basis of every work in every medium, it allows the pieces to retain a sense of proportion and perspective. Susie no longer has to think and measure distances much, most of her drawing comes naturally. This is a result of an innate talent and a constant practice.

Susie works almost every day. Her work time is very intense, she often paints alla prima where a great discipline is required in the name of freshness. I had the pleasure to witness an alla prima oil painting demo by Susie, she completed a painting in about 40 minutes. She worked uninterrupted, started by drawing color and shade outline, then covered the canvas with quick, decided, measured brush strokes, from dark to light. Susie likes the speed and the intensity, she is known to have drawn 42 pencil portrait sketches in 2 hours at a children's party. Her quick strokes came in handy when she was engaged as a courtroom illustrator by one of the major tv stations.

Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Her subjects vary greatly. Susie frequently explores a theme and paints or draws similar scenes in different media, in varied sizes and tonal variations. She executes portraits, nudes, landscapes, beach scenes, architecture, street scenes, animals, teddy bears, flowers, still lifes, paintings on silk and ceramics, book illustrations, and greeting cards. She works in oil, acrylic, pastel, lead, conté, ink, gouache, graphics, and mosaic.

Susie has great fun with framing as a significant part of the overall presentation. Her studio is full of frames ready for a perfect match. She also uses custom framing as the sizes of her pieces are frequently non-standard.

Photos by Susie Gách Peelle

Photo by Susie Gách Peelle
Susie's work graced the walls of galleries in US and overseas. She entertained numerous portrait commissions of luminaries of art, commerce, politics, and academia. Her portrait of Grace Bumbry, great American soprano, was picked by the singer herself from among the works of students of Oskar Kokoschka School of Seeing in Salzburg, Austria, which Susie was attending at the time. Once, while painting en plein air she was approached by a passerby who bought the painting, a beach scene, on the spot and commissioned a matching winter scene.

Susie Gach Peelle was born in Budapest, Hungary, spent 5 years of her early childhood in Lebanon before her parents moved to US, eventually settling on Long Island. Susie and her husband live in Locust Valley. The youngest of the couple's four sons, Evan, inherited the artistic talent, thus extending the creative line to the fourth generation.

Susie enjoys traveling. No matter what destintation, she takes her work with her wherever she goes. She frequently teaches on cruises. She is also an active teacher while in New York;  she gives private lessons and teaches at the Art League of Long Island. Susie can be contacted at 1.516.676.7011.

Please see Susie introduce her work at her studio.




6 comments:

  1. Excellent work. You have got your Fathers eye for art!
    Jack Vandelaar (friend of Peter

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  2. What beautiful work. How wonderful that you were able to pursue your passion. I got a late start, but have been able to pursue my passion for art for the past decade.

    Happy painting!

    Debbie Viola
    www.debbieviola.com

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  3. Hi Susie
    You painted me in 1969 in San Miguel d'Allende in Mexico
    we were with Greta Waldas and Grey Fair
    Gavin Sandeman
    England
    www.writehandmarketing.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  4. So happy to find this post and to see the the pix from the Med Cruise (of which I have a set!). Very beautiful work and so many variations over the years. Keep it up!

    Our best,
    Don & Polly Essinger

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  5. You sketched me in Nassau Bahamas when you were there visiting a friend, Anna Wiseman. Do you recall? That was back in the 70's. I still have that lovely piece of art, beautifully framed and hanging in my bedroom.
    Thank you for capturing me in my youth so well!
    Kathy Dilar
    Summerland, B.C.
    Canada

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  6. Your family lived next door to my ex husband Ron Jeney, who was friends with your brother Peter. When Ron and I got married in 1966 your father gave us a picture for a wedding present and 48 years later I still love it. It was a picture of sail boats in a boat yard, not done on canvas, but some kind of board. Still beautiful.

    ReplyDelete