About HughHugh Keiser

While attending Columbia University’s School of Architecture, Hugh won a competition that enabled him to attend The Cooper Union in New York City. There he was introduced to a variety of art mediums and fell in love with his craft. Upon graduation, he went on to found and direct one of the top ten architectural interior planning firms in New York City, Keiser Associates.

His clients included Allied Chemical, Macmillan Publishers, Williams, American Express, Cartier, Price Waterhouse, and Squibb. Among his favorite projects were showrooms for Crane, Underwood, Jaguar, and the New England States Pavilion at the 1967 World’s Fair.

Once his business was established and prospering, Hugh turned his attention to expanding his artistic craftsmanship. Focusing on acrylics and advanced printmaking techniques, he studied with fine arts masters at the Art Students League, School of Visual Arts, Pratt Institute, and Parsons School of Design, all in New York City, as well as Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Those priceless study sessions with masters in America and Europe helped Hugh achieve awards and success as an artist, with his work selling to private and public collections throughout the world.

He is still drawing, painting, and entertaining with his pencils, pens, and paintbrushes, and now digitally with his computer. He feels privileged to have been able to live his life doing what he loves to do, which is merely to play with color, design, and dimension.

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Hugh with Mom

My mother, Isobel (Boger) was a nurse, and my father, Frank Keiser, was a ship’s architect. I was born in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, during the time of the Great Depression and our family included my sister Ann and my brother Peter. My grandfather owned the town’s drugstore, complete with soda fountain, and it was a real treat to go there on occasion for an ice-cold Coca-Cola and a Hershey’s Kiss.

Hugh with PupAt age 7, I entered North Country School, a progressive boarding school in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. The school was also a working farm and along with lessons in math and history, I had farm chores to attend to before my lessons began and after my school day ended. I milked cows, gathered eggs, slopped the pigs, groomed horses, harvested the hay, tended the vegetable garden, gathered sap from trees, and made maple syrup. This last chore was called “sugar-bushing.” We rode in a horse-drawn sleigh along snow-packed trails, fetching pails of the sweet liquid which we then boiled down to make the syrup. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup!

When we weren’t studying or doing chores, we spent time hiking, fishing, canoeing, ice skating, and skiing in the surrounding woods and mountains. I still miss the snow and winter sports.

Every day I spent time working and playing outdoors, exploring and appreciating the natural world. That love remains with me, and I’m happy to use my art to bring an awareness of nature’s wonders to others.