Peter Michael Gish

pmgish@cox.net
Col. Mike Gish
Playing number games
with the children
Operation Restore Hope
Somalia 1993
Peter Michael Gish has been painting
since 1945.   After graduating from
Dartmouth College where he worked
with Paul Sample, he studied fresco,
drawing and painting in Paris
1951-1952.  Later he continued these
studies in Madrid at the Academia Real
de Bellas Artes.  From 1957-58 he
attended Oskar Kokoschka's
Sommerakademie in Salzburg, and
was Kokoschka's assistant there in
1959.  Following several years as a
freelance artist, Mr. Gish entered Yale
University where he earned his MFA in
painting in 1964.  The next summer he
was visiting artist at Dartmouth
College. It was during WWII training as
a naval aviator that he decided on a
painting career.   In 1967 he served as a
combat artist with the Marine Corps in
Vietnam,and again in the early 90's in
Iraq and Somalia.  He retired with the
rank of Colonel.  In 1992 Professor
Gish retired from Fairfield University,
where he had been an art department
faculty member for 21 years. Mr. Gish
was an art instructor starting in 1971
until 1974 finishing as  an Associate
Professor of Fine Arts.

Peter has exhibited his work widely,
including shows at the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington,  D.C. , The
National Academy,  the American Water
Color Society, The City Center Gallery,
Artzt Gallery, the Katharina Rich
Perlow Gallery in New York City.  He
has had one-man shows at the Ragged
Sailor Gallery, Block Island, RI, the
Silvermine Guild of Artists in New
Canaan, CT, the River Gallery in
Westport, CT  and most recently at  The
Bendheim Gallery in Greenwich Ct. & a
favorite the Jessie Edwards Gallery on
Block Island, RI.  

His work is represented in many public
and private collections including those
of Dartmouth College, Joseph H.
Hirshborn,  the Town of Westport,
Connecticut, and the Center for
Financial Studies at Fairfield University
and the
United States Marine Corps Museum.
Colonel "Mike" Gish served in
the United States Marine Corps
combat artist in Vietnam, 1967.
He won the Marine Corps
correspondent's Award for
Best Art, 1972.
Mike returned to working as a
combat artist for the Marine
Corps in Iraq, 1991
Humanitarian Operation
'Provide Comfort'
and then in 1993 in Somalia for
Humanitarian Operation
'Restore Hope'.
Peter "Mike" Gish
Block Island, RI