Carmen Peck

CARMEN PECK, ARTIST

Madison: Carmen Peck, 100, passed away on October 21st. The painting of Carmen shown here is a self-portrait from 1950. A resident of Madison for forty-three years, she was born to Romanian parents in Li�ge, Belgium, on August 20, 1914, during the German invasion of that city. She spent her early childhood in Bucharest, Paris, and London before moving to America at age 10. The family settled in Dayton, Ohio, where Carmen's father, an expert in the new field of radio electronics, worked with aviation pioneer Orville Wright and developed the first blind landing system for aircraft for the U.S. Army Signal Corps before becoming Dean of Engineering at Antioch College.

After high school, Carmen enrolled at the Dayton Art Institute, where she was quickly recognized for her flare for oil painting. She went on to further studies at the Columbus School of Art and the Layton Art Institute. However, it was in Chicago that her work, then in the mid-western school characterized by Grant Wood, first gained wide recognition. Her portrait, "Joan," was accepted for a juried show at the Chicago Art Institute and was reproduced in full color in the Sunday Chicago Tribune, a rare honor at the time.

In 1939, Carmen married Hal Peck, a young engineer and University of Wisconsin graduate and moved to Fairport, a suburb of Rochester, New York. Two children, Dan and Jeff, came along in the forties, but Carmen's life as an artist never lost a beat. She branched off into teaching art at neighborhood classes and local schools, while her paintings continued to attract awards and prizes, most notably the Juror's Award in Rochester Memorial Art Gallery's prestigious Finger Lakes Show. Her work was also hung in numerous exhibitions, including one-person shows, such as the one held in 1945 by the Perinton Historical Society, where her New York State landscapes and portraits of local people were exhibited.

Throughout the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, Carmen continued to live and paint in the Rochester area, during which time she developed a freer, more impressionist style in her oils and also experimented with collage and mixed media. After Hal died in 1965, Carmen moved to Massachusetts, where she joined an artists' cooperative. But in 1971 she decided to
settle in Madison, Hal's family home, and where her son Jeff and daughter-in-law Connie were studying for their PhDs.

In Madison, Carmen worked for ten years as a docent at the Elvehjem Museum of Art (now the Chazen Museum of Art), during which time she took an interest in watercolor. From 1980 on, she worked almost entirely in this medium, developing a bright and airy style. But Carmen was not forgotten in New York. In 1992, she was invited back for a recreation of her 1945 one-person show for which people from all over the country loaned their Carmen Peck paintings and last year the town historical society ran a front page article on her and her art in its monthly newsletter.

In celebration of Carmen's 100th birthday last summer, Madison's Segoe Gardens retirement community, where she had lived for many years, mounted a month-long retrospective exhibition drawn from her private collection. Carmen is survived by her sons Dan Peck and
Jeff Peck, daughters-in-law Patricia Wallace and Connie Peck, granddaughter Jennifer Peck, and great-grandaughter Emilia Gioia. Other survivors include Carmen's brother Dan Barbulesco and his extended family. The family is deeply indebted to Syndi Dobson, Carmen's devoted companion-care assistant for many years. Donations in Carmen's memory can be made to the South Madison Coalition of the Elderly (128 E. Olin Ave., #110, Madison, WI 53713), whose services greatly enriched her life. Please share a memory at www.CressFuneralService.com .