Bernice Paul, artist and teacher, dies at 103

Bernice Paul, 103, of Philadelphia, an artist, teacher, and endearing role model for family and friends, died Friday, Feb. 5, of esophageal complications at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center.

Born in Moscow in 1917, Mrs. Paul came with her family to the United States in 1930 and settled in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia.

Although she did not seriously immerse in her art until she was 30, when her daughter, Susan, showed her own talent as a youth, Mrs. Paul created an extensive portfolio over 70 years that includes more than 100 pieces in oils, watercolors, ceramics, and other media. At 100, she had a centennial retrospective of her career at Rosemont College.

While she appreciated the attention, Mrs. Paul was not overly impressed with herself. “I don’t think about showing,” she said in 2016. “I just like painting.”

Her paintings have been described by critics as “vibrant,” with bright colors and a bold style, and her large, four-panel work Springtime is on permanent display in Lankenau Medical Center’s cardiac unit.

“I do like [painting] outdoors the best,” Mrs. Paul said in 2016. “You have to get close to your subject matter.”

Her work has also been exhibited at, among other venues, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Woodmere, the William Penn Museum in Harrisburg, and Philadelphia’s City Hall.

Her resumé included gold medals from the Philadelphia Sketch Club and the Plastic Club, a first prize at the Upper Merion Cultural Center, and Best in Show at the Main Line Center of the Arts.

“You can really tell by looking at [her work] that it’s something someone’s been doing for their entire life,” Annette Monnier, the executive director of the University City Arts League, said in 2016.

Another critic noted the “physicality of the brushstroke and the exuberance of her painting.”

Featured in The Inquirer in a 2016 story about her first solo art show — when she was 98 — Mrs. Paul has been profiled in other medical and local news publications. She also had her own website.

Mrs. Paul met her husband, Nate Paul, who owned Paul Brothers grocery store in Philadelphia, and they were married for 46 years until his death in 1986.

After she and her daughter studied under Filomena Dellaripa at Fleisher Art Memorial, Mrs. Paul went on to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts. She taught privately, and at the Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood.

When her vision began to falter, Mrs. Paul turned to ceramics, and earned a prize at the Bryn Mawr Rehab Art Ability exhibit in 2019. “My eyes are going now, but I still paint,” she said in 2019. “There is a joy in painting.”

“Everything was a potential painting to her,” said granddaughter Natania Schaumburg.

Mrs. Paul loved hot dogs and the Jersey Shore. She swam in Utah’s Great Salt Lake a few years ago, did yoga at 96, and shook up her exercise class with funky dance moves when she was 100. She survived breast cancer and heart bypass surgery, and donated her body to medical research.

She had a “sly” sense of humor, her family said. When told that she could not mix her medicine with wine at dinner, she said: “You’re right. I won’t take my medication.” When she turned 100, she said: “I never in 100 years thought I’d live to be this old.”

“She was genuine, creative, loving, and accepting of everyone,” said her granddaughter Sara Schaumburg.

“She was a surrogate mother and grandmother to many people,” said her daughter Susan Schaumburg.

In 2016, Mrs. Paul described her artistic journey this way: “You have to have the desire. And you have to give it time.”

In addition to her daughter and granddaughters, Mrs. Paul is survived by many nieces, nephews, and other relatives. Three sisters and a brother died earlier.

A service is to be held later.

Donations in her name may be made to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, P.O. Box 515, Northampton, Mass. 01061.