The Art of Chester County

The Art of

Chester County LELE GALER

BY BRUCE A. COLLEY, DO PRESIDENT OF CHESTER COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY

Some of our featured artists have been born and raised in Chester County, others find it their home later in life. But both born and naturalized artists are nurtured by the geography, history, and people here. Then by assimilation and immersion in our special county they find themselves to be Chester County artists. Lele, one could argue, is both, as she was born in Chester County but moved to New England as a young teenager then returned. After marriage and about twenty years she found herself back in Chester County. Her husband, a neurologist and pharmacologic researcher, was brought back by serendipity to her childhood home of Chester County, as it is a world center for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry.

Now twenty years in Chester County, Lele has fully integrated herself in the art community of the Brandywine Valley. Already an artist by birth; she realized her calling to art from the first day she held a crayon. Lele majored in English Literature and minored in Art, taking classes through high school, college, and post graduate training. Though Art was not her profession, it was always her inspiration and avocation. After a series of “day jobs” and a stint in the word of finance her inborn talent and interest in art drew her to share her love art as a volunteer, teaching art to local school children and the community at large. Lele joyously described her love of sharing the world of art with children. And if I could only find words to reflect her energy it would blind you.

Heart Beats -Nemours 4(unedited) and detailed. Icarus #2 detail

While volunteering at local schools and community centers Lele met and worked with many other Chester County artists. In a brief time, finding herself totally immersed in the local art circles here in Chester County and finding encouragement among her colleagues to let her creativeness flower, she made art her vocation and now works as a professional artist full time. Well, not her only profession.

Lele’s other full-time devotion is a Viniculturist, as Lele is founder and owner of Galer Estates Winery. It is one of the finest wineries on the east coast, known for its pioneering work in growing wine grapes in Pennsylvania and improving the wine making techniques unique to the mid-Atlantic region. I was lucky to have a tour of Lele’s studio in the Brandywine Valley near Longwood Gardens, made up of multiple “shops” in what was a long stable, now converted to her studio. It was set with dozens of windows filling the shop with natural light and overlooking her grapevine covered hills. Walking one end to the other through this 50-yard-long building one experiences a visual tour of her many oeuvres, a ceramic shop, then an oil studio followed by the watercolor area and a weld-steel sculpture shop, each area brimming with projects and works of art that are breathtaking for their variety, originality, and quality. Please spend a few minutes to enjoy a sampling of her creations from what is a true art workshop.

Lele Galer Studio address: 1740 Lenape Rd., West Chester, PA 19382 Email: galerfamily@comcast.net Website: ww.lelegaler.com

Magical Garden of Hestercombe House Artist Statement:

Lele Galer is a multi-media artist who works in oil, clay and welded steel. She regularly exhibits in galleries and numerous shows throughout the year in the Chester County area. Her paintings try to capture the magic and dynamic forms and textures of nature’s gardens and forest environments. Known for her steel metal hearts that range in size from 12 inches to 10 feet, Lele enjoys working with an uninhibited style within a structured form.

The heart is a recognized symbol and shape that carries positive emotions and personal connections that make it an ideal form to work through in which she can explore sculptural abstractions and concepts. The heart shape is the structural foundation for the work, and the loving sentiments that are connected to the symbol, are likewise the foundation for the artist’s personal inspiration and creativity.

She graduated from Wesleyan University in Connecticut and the University of California at Berkeley. She studied metal sculpture with steel sculptor Stan Smokler and steel sculptor Rob Sigafoos. Her works are always on display at the Galer Winery and shown throughout the year at regional galleries. She will have a solo show at the Blue Streak Gallery in Wilmington, Delaware in the Spring of 2022.