Bernard Geiser

Bernard Geiser

Geiser, Bernard

Oregon

painter

printmaker

Northwest artist

Oregon artist

Bernard Geiser was a professional artist before his ordination as an Episcopal priest in 1924. He had attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and, while in France in World War I, painted murals in the base hospital in Perigueux. He later headed the art department at Western State College in Colorado. He arrived in Portland in 1931. While assigned to St. Mark's Church, he completed a series of eleven murals and exhibited paintings there. Geiser commented, "I gave up art for the Church and somehow the Church gave it back." He attended the University of Oregon in 1939 on a Carnegie Scholarship. He exchanged ideas and paintings with friends Charles Heaney and Hank Kowert over the years. They attended his memorial exhibition at Forest Grove's Valley Art Association. He was active in local art circles from his arrival in the 1930s until his death.

Artist biography reproduced with permission from the authors, Oregon Painters: the First Hundred Years (1859-1959), Ginny Allen and Jody Klevit.

Male

Associate of: Charles Heaney (American, 1897-1981)

Associate of: Hank Kowert (American, 1924-1977)