The life of Fay Peck

Family History and Education

Fay Peck was born August 7, 1931 in Chicago, Illinois, the only child of Gunnar Gunderson and Alice Gunderson. Her father immigrated to America from Norway at age six and her mother was also of Norwegian descent.  Peck passed away September 18, 2016.

While her childhood home was in River Forest, Illinois, she spent summers on the family farm in Lemont Illinois. Her early experiences on the farm fostered in her a deep and abiding relationship with nature. She developed a lifelong habit of drawing in keen observation of her surroundings. 

In 1954, Peck married Lake Forest, Illinois native David B. Peck, III. Peck's career as an artist developed while she and her husband raised their four children. David fully championed her in all ways, facilitating her freedom to pursue an art career

A graduate of University of Miami, Florida, Peck also studied art at University of Wisconsin, University of Oslo Norway. During the 1960s, she was mentored by Paul Wieghardt at Evanston Art Center. Mr. Wieghardt (Professor Emeritus, Art Institute of Chicago) said of her "Fay Peck is a painter who combines three great qualities: a painter's instinct, extraordinary color sense and undaunted perseverance. There is a vitality and daring, built on a solid foundation of honest study."

THE PAINTER & THE PRINTMAKER

Fay Peck was an Expressionist painter and printmaker. While she is best known for her landscape oil paintings, she was equally proficient as a printmaker. Peck's landscapes convey an explosion of color through heavily applied oil paint and seething texture. Her nude figures are expressed through vigorous lines on a background of floral tapestry and intricate patterns. About Peck's nude figures, a Swiss art critic wrote "She has a remarkable expressive power". 

While Peck chose her own path of Expressionism, she was influenced greatly by her mentor Paul Wieghardt and noted artists: Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde & Kathe Kollwitz. She created a vast body of work in a range of mediums over the course of her lifetime.

Among Peck's most recognized screen prints are: Toto Le Mondain, Sulky Sally, Spongy George, The Pin Dropped and Antagonized Nude.  Peck constantly challenged herself to explore new methods and mediums. After producing roughly sixty screen prints, she moved on to mixed media, monotypes and woodcuts, while also continuing her landscape painting.

WORK IN THE STUDIO and FIELD. 

Peck's art studio was a thoughtfully designed space in her home where she built a screen printing station and shelving for the many prints produced there. Also in this studio was a pair of large easels for securing the 5' Masonite boards that she painted on. The studio walls were often littered with sketches, photographs, pieces of fabric and pages torn from magazines; all things that served as inspiration plus there was a small library of art books.

Not to be confined by a studio, she regularly took her oil paints and easel outdoors to suburban Chicago gardens and prairies. Her love of snow skiing and the Colorado Rocky Mountains frequently took her to Aspen, Colorado.  This experience provided dramatic imagery that is often depicted in her large oil paintings. 

PECK'S LIFESTYLE & INFLUENCE

Peck traveled with her husband extensively overseas and was an avid collector of Chinese Cloisonné, tribal masks, ethnic jewelry and designer furniture. Due to her vast collections, her home was like a small museum. In 1959, she hired Edward Dart (Architect) to design a contemporary post & beam house on a steep wooded ravine near the shore of Lake Michigan. Her custom home had walls of glass providing vistas of a lush landscape and creek. This was the site of an old botanical garden previously owned by industrialist Cyrus McCormick. 

Peck was a trend setter and expressed it through her many theme parties, her fabulous clothes, her choice of music and the health food on her table.  Drawing and exhibiting nude figures was another hallmark of her unique character. 

Peck embraced all of the arts.  She loved dancing to rock n roll music, attending the symphony and she had an affinity for the theater & film.

PECK'S BOOK & WRITE-UPS

For years, Peck talked about publishing a book of her life's work.  In 2014 it became a reality and she released Fay Peck, American Expressionist.  Soon after her 80th birthday, she assembled a team and produced this hard bound book; a glowing representation of her numerous art mediums. Several family members assisted with this project including her daughter Adair Peck Shea (fine artist) and granddaughter Carling Peck (graphic designer).

Peck’s artwork and lifestyle has been published in several periodicals including Cosmopolitan, House & Garden, Town & Country, Chicago Tribune Weekly, Aspen Times, Pioneer Press Quarterly and Arts Review. Lastly, Peck’s photograph and work appears in the book, The Spirit of Aspen.