Like her colorful, motorized sculptures made of Plexiglas, Aaronel deRoy Gruber energized any space she entered and commanded attention.

Mrs. Gruber, who evolved over a 61-year career from painter to sculptor to photographer to videographer, died Wednesday of congestive heart failure in her Churchill home. She was 92.

Demanding of herself and others, Mrs. Gruber attended art openings religiously, held leadership roles in local arts groups and exhibited her work locally, nationally and in Italy and Spain. She also learned welding to create metal sculpture. Her largest piece is a 21-foot-tall tower of open rounded squares called "Steelcityscape," which has been conserved and will be installed this fall in Mellon Park.

"At first, she was not regarded well by the bearded male artists of Pittsburgh. They grew to respect her," said Harry Schwalb, an artist, art critic and longtime friend who lives in Oakland.

Statuesque at 5-foot-7, Mrs. Gruber's stylish appearance belied her nonstop work ethic and competitive nature. As a teenager growing up in Squirrel Hill, she took painting classes from Samuel Rosenberg, a well-known artist and professor at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University.

Her father, Joseph deRoy, was a dentist who oversaw 14 offices and died when his daughter was 15. The artist was brought up by her mother, Bessie, a gifted seamstress.

At Allderdice High School, where she graduated in 1936, she was the only girl allowed to practice with the boys' golf team. At age 73, she shot a hole in one at Westmoreland Country Club, said her son, Jon, a San Francisco money manager.

While a student at Carnegie Tech, Mrs. Gruber was influenced by Robert Lepper, who introduced her to plastic as an art form. In 1940, she earned a bachelor of science degree in costume economics; in January of that year, she married Irving Gruber, whom she met at a fraternity dance.

She returned to art classes with Mr. Rosenberg in 1951 and launched her career from a basement studio at her Beechwood Boulevard home. As she painted nearby, her eldest son, Jon, played table tennis with his friends. Later, she rented a one-room studio with a skylight over a garage.

In 1959, Mrs. Gruber won first prize at the Art Directions Gallery Annual in New York City. Her painting "Intonations" was a soft, lyrical abstract. The award included a solo show held later that year. In 1961, the artist won first prize in oil painting for "Mystery," an abstract work exhibited at the annual Associated Artists of Pittsburgh show at Carnegie Institute (now the Carnegie Museum of Art). David Smith, the highly regarded abstract sculptor, was among the three judges.

"I introduced them," Mr. Schwalb said, recalling that when Mr. Smith learned her husband ran a foundry, he suggested that Mrs. Gruber try working in steel.

That idea bore fruit. As president of the American Forge & Manufacturing Co. in McKees Rocks, Mr. Gruber provided a superstructure for his wife's ambitions. Besides backing her financially, he framed and stretched canvases, drove trucks packed with sculpture to New York City exhibitions and gave her space to work in the foundry.

In 1976, "Steelcityscape" won a Society of Sculptors competition. In 1977, it was placed under the portico at the City-County Building on Grant Street. By 1985, it had been moved to Fort Duquesne Boulevard at Allegheny Riverfront Park.

In the late 1980s, Mrs. Gruber took up photography, using a Widelux camera to create prints that were four times wider than they were tall. Her subjects ranged from silent steel mills to panoramas of Pittsburgh to bridges in Scotland.

Linda Benedict-Jones, curator of photography at Carnegie Museum of Art, met the artist at a party in 1993.

"I realized that the oldest member of the photographic community was probably the most experimental. I thought that was astonishing. She set the bar very high .... She was always interested in being an innovator."

Besides her husband and son, Mrs. Gruber is survived by a daughter, Jamie, and another son, Terry, both of New York City. The artist was buried Wednesday. A memorial service will be held here in the fall.

First Published: July 8, 2011, 4:00 a.m.