For Windy City painter Lorraine Peltz, her "Excellent Hostess" exhibit at Munster's William J. Bachman Gallery is serving as more than just a showcase of her work.

"For the show we had to borrow back work that was in California, New York and Provincetown," she said.

"Things that I had not seen in the flesh for many years came back, and that was very, very pleasurable." The show runs through Sept. 14.

Peltz was reared in Brooklyn and studied art at the State University in New York. She made her way to Chicago in the early '80s to continue her education, receiving her masters in fine arts at the University of Chicago.

After graduation, she found employment in the Windy City and gallery space to showcase her work, and has been here ever since. She currently lives on Chicago's North Side.

"Chicago is a very good place to have a full and real and satisfying life as an artist," she said.

"To fashion a life for a long term and trying to sustain that, Chicago for me has been a good place."

In addition to showing her works at Chicago galleries such as Gallery A, Gescheidle and Koscielak Gallery, Peltz has exhibited her paintings at venues in Paris, Boston, San Francisco and her native New York.

For "Hostess," Peltz and exhibit curator John Cain selected more than three dozen works created over 15 years. Finding inspiration in everything from fashion and advertising to women's art history and textile design, Peltz admitted to being proud when viewing a decade and a half of her creations.

"One of the things that I'm interested in doing with these paintings is to sort of provide a sustained moment of pleasure in terms of imagery, color and idea," she said.

"(The paintings), to me, hold up over the years. They have staying power."

In addition to continued creating and exhibiting, Peltz also has taught at the School of the Art Institute for more than a decade.

"As a teacher, I feel that I'm part of this continuum," she said.

"It's nice to be able to see kind of how you can set the future with your ideas, and teaching at the School of the Art Institute is really a pleasure, because it's a place that values being an artist and what it means to be an artist."

FYI: lorrainpeltz.com