Ataraxia 

Gabrielle Raffel already in her childhood had an inner world full of creativity and fantasy. In her youth, she became the muse of the important German photographer and art collector Gunter Sachs. It is at that moment, when a new fascinating universe opens up for Gabrielle in art.
She was a student and muse of the great painter Ernst Fuchs, who belonged to the Vienna school of fantastic realism.
Interested in portraiture, she manages to capture a special surrealism in her works, which are surrounded by a magical halo. She has traveled extensively to different parts of the world, living in different cities and getting to know many cultures that she captures in her paintings with eclectic and original forms.
The support used in this series called Ataraxia, is vintage upholstery fabric from the important Austrian brand Backhausen in Art Deco style, giving her magnificent portraits a new dimension full of harmony and originality. These fabrics have been part of her daily life, living with them in her attic in Vienna.
She was never interested in the commercial art world but her works are in private collections in the USA, Austria, Paris, Hong Kong, Croatia, Spain, etc.
She calls this new series Ataraxia, a title loaded with symbolism since Ataraxia is a state of mind characterized by tranquility and the total absence of fears or desires. This is exactly what Gabrielle wants to transmit with her works, the hypnotic with a universe that we all carry inside but we do not know how to reach it, they trap us and take us to another dimension of our own inner world connecting us with neutrality and peace.