New in the Gallery

Paula Swaydan Grebel

Flushed with color and finished with confident brushwork, Wisconsin artist Paula Swaydan Grebel's work presents moments of beauty. Light-drenched interiors filled with thoughtful still-life arrangements and furnishings make up her new series of small oil paintings on canvas and panel. Each piece captures intimate scenes of serenity and sincerity. 

My artwork starts with looking. Sensations guide my choices, triggered by shapes of color. I have found that interiors provide a good deal of meaning... Interiors are a metaphor between the human spirit and material realms.

To start a new body of work, I ask myself many questions. I write my thoughts in a journal, draw daily, and collect printed materials that serve as visual cues for my paintings. Once I find an image that triggers an emotion, I create small, quick drawings of the interior. This process forces me to look carefully at the work I am creating. With a design now in mind, I make a new drawing to the same scale as the panel, and begin to paint. 

-Paula Swaydan Grebel

Born in California, Paula Swaydan Grebel received her BFA with an emphasis in Drawing and a Minor in Textiles from the California State University, Long Beach. After moving to Wisconsin in the 1990s, where she raised her two children, Swaydan Grebel continued her education. She studied under several perceptual painters whose work challenged what an observational painting can be. Her varied education, coupled with her expansive knowledge of art history, informs Swaydan Grebel's paintings. Her work is collected abroad and throughout the United States and held in numerous public and private collections.