Not one to rest easily on her laurels, Gisela somehow found the time to attend her young sons, Till and Marc. With the boys at school, and her horses attended to, she spent many hours each day 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 to her expanding gallery, some so large, they bore witness to her tenacity and sheer physical strength.

Ceramics came into Gisela’s life and 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 in a unique log cabin close to her studio in Loxahatchee Groves, north of Wellington in Palm Beach County, Florida. She shares the house with her husband Howald, together with white peacocks, rare pheasants, Koi, a demanding white cockatoo and imported German Shepherds. All of this is surrounded by tropical vegetation...the start of a planned jungle.

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.

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 Pferdekamper an international developer and entrepreneur.

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, a breeding farm and dressage center.

Gisela turned her limitless energy into organizing and administrating the Palm Beach Dressage Derby at her new farm in White Fences, Palm Beach County. This equestrian event was a big success from the beginning. In spring of 2008, the Derby celebrated its 25th anniversary as an internationally recognized horse show.

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