Gabrielle Hagert Feldman, 91, formerly of Mt. Airy, an artist and illustrator, died March 4 of failure to thrive at a senior residence in Bridgman, Mich., where she had been living for the past year.
A wide-ranging artist, Mrs. Feldman demonstrated her skills in drawing, landscape, still life, portraiture and narrative painting. Her artwork was displayed at galleries and museums in northeastern Pennsylvania and in New York state, Michigan and Illinois.
Her favorite subjects were opera, nature, the circus and the performance arts. In the 1980s and 1990s, she painted a series of self-portraits in oils and turned to narrative themes that included a landscape series of the four seasons and a biblical story series.
Raised in Center City, she moved with her family to Jenkintown, where she graduated from Abington High School. She attended what is now the University of the Arts, but left school early to accept a job as a fashion illustration for a local newspaper.
While a mother and homemaker living in Mt. Airy for three decades, she became a photographer and exhibited her work in solo and group shows. She also started a home business, making hand-painted clothing for sale in stores in Philadelphia, Manhattan, Paris and Beverly Hills.
With their children grown, Mrs. Feldman and her husband, the late Milton Friedman, purchased a 200-acre farm in Honesdale, Pa., where Mrs. Feldman returned to painting and drawing. She earned a master’s degree in fine arts from Marywood University in Scranton.
Mrs. Feldman is survived by daughters Martha Feldman, Rebekah Boyer, Amy Tecosky-Feldman and Rachel Nazareth; a son, Fred Feldman; a brother; a sister; seven grandchildren; and two great grandchildren. Her husband died in 1992.
Funeral services will be private, with a stone placed later in Laurel Hill Cemetery.
