Blurring the line that divides art and nature, Richard Frank (1947-2014) was the ultimate master of the watercolor medium. His work depicts the natural world with meticulous precision, surrealism, and sometimes, a stroke of whimsy, drawing attention to the wonders that enthrall him while hiding all traces of creative framework.
Richard Frank was born in Great Britain and moved to the United States at the age of thirteen. He studied architecture at the University of Florida and painting and drawing at both the Tyler School of Art and John F. Kennedy University, earning a Master of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Over the years, Frank held positions as a museum curator, university instructor, gallery director, and host for arts programming on public television. Included in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and Europe, Mr. Frank was the recipient of many awards and the holder of two Artists Fellowships from the State of Florida.
A major underlying theme of Frank’s work is the concept of humankind as stewards of the natural world. His paintings are lushly layered with fragmented and cryptographic images referencing personal experiences as well as art history. Museum of Art – DeLand CEO, George Bolge comments, “He doesn’t copy nature or transcribe it literally, but gives form to the patterns, rhythms, balances, and movements made by the elements of nature. Frogs, insects, birds, and fish are metamorphosed into detailed forms and shapes swaying, dipping, and moving about that are like personages in their own special way. And we will find such things as moving curves and colorful objects in such perfect balance with one another that they activate and stir vague and fugitive memories of infinite beauty within us.”
