Art Is Life for Painter and New Burlington Gallerist Stephen Zeigfinger

In his eighties, Stephen Zeigfinger could be taking it easy, doing whatever he pleases. And actually, he is: For Zeigfinger, “whatever” means making color-drenched abstract paintings while operating a gallery and frame shop, as he’s done for more than 50 years in multiple locations. Abstractions, his new, aptly named spot in downtown Burlington, is Zeigfinger’s ninth or 10th gallery — it’s easy to lose track when one’s career has spanned not only decades but continents.

Passersby can identify the College Street gallery by the phalanx of squirt bottles in the window, each holding a different color of acrylic paint. Zeigfinger’s supplies are clustered up front, as he creates his works on the premises. During a recent visit, he was working on a pink-hued, thickly textured piece commissioned by trumpeter Mark Klarich for album art on a recording by the jazz group D’Moja.

At the back of the shop are the tools of the framing trade, including a vintage Valiani mat cutter that is itself a work of art. The walls of the entire space are covered with Zeigfinger’s mesmerizing works, some of which suggest underwater realms. He’s remarkably productive, making upwards of 20 paintings a month.

“I’m on a roll,” he acknowledged. And he’s clearly having fun. When visitors drift in, Zeigfinger lights up, asking where they’re from and making congenial chitchat, as if they were party guests and not just potential customers. “I’m 82 years old,” he’ll tell them, “and I’ve been painting since I was 6.”

More precisely, he’ll turn 82 on April 19, when he plans to celebrate with an open house at the gallery.

Growing up in New York City, Zeigfinger said, he would draw and paint alongside an aunt who was an artist. He never had formal art training; when it was time for college — he was the first in his family to go — Zeigfinger attended Queens College, then studied psychology at City University of New York and Stanford University in California. “I really wanted to go to Europe, but my grandparents talked me out of it,” he remarked.

Returning to the East Coast, Zeigfinger taught briefly at Brooklyn College and then, in 1966, moved to Vermont. Over the next five or so years, he taught psychology at Goddard College and what was then Lyndon State College, he said, and worked for a Northeast Kingdom mental health agency. He also married and had a son, Shalom.

In the early ’70s, Zeigfinger finally began to indulge his long-delayed wanderlust, heading first to Mexico and Colombia. Interrupting his travels, he went back to Vermont “to sell my farm [in Danville] and get divorced,” he said. Afterward, Zeigfinger crossed the country in his Volkswagen Bug and soon found himself launching a frame shop “in an old cow barn” in Petaluma, Calif. That’s when he began to paint in earnest.

“I’ve been painting pretty steadily since then,” he said. “Fifty-three years.”

Over those years, Zeigfinger honed his visceral approach to art-making, continually experimenting with techniques and materials. “I’m still learning things all the time,” he said with evident relish.

He also developed a lifestyle — painting, framing and selling art — that proved to be portable.

Zeigfinger moved back to Vermont in 1979 because, he said, he missed the seasons and “East Coast energy.” He worked in commercial real estate until he could afford to buy a house in Newfane, where he established a gallery and frame shop. “I had that gallery and house maybe 10 years,” he recalled. That was a relatively long and stable stint for the restless Zeigfinger, during which time he met the woman who would become his life partner, Allison Richter. They had a daughter, Sophia.

The relationship has happily survived living and working together, as well as multiple moves around Vermont — Townshend, Brattleboro, Bellows Falls — and Europe. In 1982, the family started going to Spain, Zeigfinger explained; they bought a house in the Sierra Nevada foothills and opened another gallery. “We just sold that place last winter,” he said.

While in Spain, Zeigfinger made a connection in Budapest and began to spend time in the Hungarian capital. “I had a very successful show in Budapest and bought an apartment,” he said. “My friends were actors, artists, poets, writers — it was so rich.”

Zeigfinger and Richter continued to yo-yo between Europe and Vermont — they had another gallery on Shelburne Road for a couple of years — and he sold work outdoors in downtown Burlington for several summers.

At the urging of his son, now a Spanish teacher at Burlington High School, Zeigfinger and Richter took an apartment at Cathedral Square, ready for senior years near their children and grandchildren. (Sophia lives in Enfield, N.H.) But Zeigfinger, who said he’d long wanted to open a gallery in Burlington, wasted no time doing just that. After finding the space on College Street, he signed a five-year lease with an option to renew. “Now I have a bucket list,” the artist quipped. “To be able to extend my lease in five years.”

Though Zeigfinger’s unique works don’t call to mind specific artists, he acknowledged some kinship with abstract painters Jackson Pollock and Joan Mitchell — particularly the physicality of their techniques. He recalled seeing an interview with Mitchell on YouTube: “She said, ‘Painting for me is like breathing.’ That’s exactly how I feel.”

Klarich said he commissioned artwork from Zeigfinger after happening upon the gallery. “It’s not representational, which is important for the music,” he said. “And secondly, it’s good. I figured I could give him [the] music and he’d find something to express.”

A corollary for Zeigfinger’s work, in fact, might be improvisational jazz. He’s an intuitive colorist, and the paintings seem to result from spontaneous combustion. “The colors [I choose] are mostly unconscious,” Zeigfinger confirmed. “They reflect how I’m feeling. What I love about abstraction is, it depends on what mood you’re in.”

One of his patrons, fellow Cathedral Square resident Judith Pelton, owns six of Zeigfinger’s paintings — so far. She likes the “unpredictability” of Zeigfinger’s creations and the way he layers paint. “The interpretation is very individual, very personal,” Pelton explained. “It definitely comes to Steve from another realm.”

An early riser, Zeigfinger spends his days in the gallery, painting, framing and chatting up curious visitors. And he’s intentionally old-school: no website, moribund social media accounts. “For me, it’s really important to know the people I sell my paintings to,” he said. “It’s so satisfying to sell a painting to someone who has never bought art before.”

This article appears in The Money & Retirement Issue 2024.

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