For a while, Gisela strove to limit herself to the rigid confines of drafting, but soon found herself drawn towards the freedom of expression in painting. She joined a prestigious department store as a decorator, where she produced posters, and soon branched out into the realms of lithography, in a well-known printing outfit in Flensburg, where her family had moved to while she was in her teens.

Juggling the two professions, she completed her studies in graphics, and was rewarded with a Fine Arts scholarship to the famous Niedersaechsische Akademie, in Braunschweig. It was at this point that she met and married Dr. Howald Pferdekaemper an international developer and entrepreneur, and started riding her Hanovarian horse, another great passion in her life.

Following her husband to the U.S., Gisela arrived in Florida in 1975, and wasted little time in importing a Hanovarian stallion and some 32 brood mares from Germany, thus establishing Hanover Horse Farm, in Palm Beach County.

Immersed in the business of breeding and accrediting these magnificent creatures, she soon discovered that, unlike Europe, dressage had little or no following in the United States, outside of the Devon at Dressage Show on the East coast. Seeking to remedy the problem, Gisela turned her limitless energy into organizing and administrating the Palm Beach Dressage Derby at her farm in White Fences, Loxahatchee.

The result was astonishing, with riders from Germany, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, Sweden, France, Denmark, Switzerland, and, of course, from all over the U.S., taking part in this event, under the guidance of such internationally acclaimed Olympic Dressage Judges as Germany’s Klaus Schuette, and the late Jaap Pott, from the Netherlands.

Not one to rest easily on her laurels, Gisela somehow found the time to attend her young sons, Till and Marc, and to re-establish her link with her first love, painting. With the boys at school, and her horses attended to, she spent her afternoons in her studio, totally immersed in the vitality she found in the lush Florida landscape, so different from the more austere atmosphere she had left behind in Germany.

Her paintings now became less surrealistic in style, displaying more color and energy, more lucidity in their composition Her fascination with her surroundings became quite evident, as she explored the possibilities she gleaned from the famous Florida sunsets, and the expansive swamps, teeming with bird and animal life.

Gisela has had noted success in placing her paintings, not only in the U.S, but in Europe as well. Cement and bronze next caught Gisela’s artistic eye, and she began to produce sculptures of animals, primarily using her Hanovarian horses as subject matter, going back once again to her surrealistic art form. She added sculptures of people to her expanding gallery, some so large; they bore witness to her tenacity and sheer physical strength.

Ceramics came into Gisela’s life almost by accident. Browsing in Palm Beach one day, she discovered the Crafts Gallery, and immediately signed up for a six-week crash course on how to manipulate and fire objects in clay. This venture led to the acquisition of a large kiln, and to the building of yet another studio, where Gisela developed a new media in which to express her originality and talent.

Gisela lives on Hanover Horse farm, in White Fences, Loxahatchee, Florida, which she shares with her husband and mentor, Dr. Howald Pferdekaemper and her imported champion performance German Shepherds dogs, which she has been breeding with great success for over a decade. Her studio is located in Loxahatchee Groves – only ten minutes away from her home.