I approach a canvas with a desire to fuse color with dimension through a complex of textures -- free from intention, tradition, and norms. Layering devices burn a life force into even the smallest structures. Hues, light, dark, bold, pale,  bond and speak their own language. Strokes, obscure, defined, personify sameness and difference and how the two natures work in concert. Applications invite stories, interpretations. My mission is to draw viewers deep into my world and ignite their imagination.

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Fran was formally trained at Chouinard Art Institute (CAL ARTS) in representational style. As a student in the ‘60s, Fran was chosen to exhibit her paintings heavily texturized with spackling wall paste in galleries and furniture showrooms in Los Angeles. She also received representation at a gallery in New Jersey.

 

After school, due to a childhood trauma with her face, Fran shifted her interest from painting canvases to women’s faces. At twenty-one, she was resident makeup artist at a renowned modeling agency in Toronto whose gorgeous models graced international fashion magazines. She also did makeover spreads for Canadian magazines and billboards. In her travels, she learned that many women, even top models, were unhappy with their faces. This led to a 30-year career, passionate about making over women’s attitudes. Combining her unique beauty aesthetics, she designed workshops and support groups in the United States and Canada. The widespread media took notice, earning her national and international recognition. She was featured on talk shows, radio, women’s magazines and other print including The New York Times. ​Fran did not paint during those years. Instead, she penned a memoir and two screenplays centered around her life story. 

 

In 2013, Fran returned to painting as an abstract expressionist, preferring to create feeling and emotion over defined images, infusing her canvases with pastes, sand, glosses, paper towels, acrylic skins, and unusual mediums. Within this genre, Fran has been known to makeover her paintings, even ones in juried shows that had won awards. "Like I did with women’s faces, I see new possibilities, and just go for it."

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Fran’s paintings have been exhibited in over thirty galleries in New Jersey, the Chelsea district of Manhattan and Southern Florida. Several are in private collection in New York, Florida, Toronto, and Hollywood, California. Often a keynote speaker for various Florida organizations, Fran's collective projects have been featured in various Florida media and on YouTube. 

 

Fran is a Signature artist of the Boca Art Museum, the Art Education Fund Chair of the Delray Art League, the exhibition coordinator of the National Association of Women Artists for the Florida chapter and the co-chair of the Art Program for the Boca Raton Branch of the National League of American Pen Women. A former instructor at Old School Square’s Creative Art School in Delray Beach, she holds online classes and runs workshops on abstract expressionism for beginners and professional artists. Recently her article “Putting the Wow Factor into your paintings with Acrylic Skins was featured in The National Association of Women Artists’ magazine. 

 

 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

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2022   National League of American Pen Women, exhibit, Ann Kolb Nature Center, Hollywood, Fl

2022   NAWAFL Board Members Exhibit, ArtServe, Fort Lauderdale, Fl -- Second Place 

2021   National League of American Pen Women, Florida Biennial Conference

2021   National League of American Pen Women, Boca Raton Community Center, Boca Raton, Fl

2021   Delray Art League, Sugar Sands Park, Boca Raton, Fl

2021   Summer Sizzle Exhibit, Broward Art Guild Gallery, Fort Lauderdale, Fl

2021   Art Angels Online Exhibit, National Association of Women Artists

2021   National League of American Pen Women Annual Juried Show -- Second Place 

2020   131st Anniversary Online Exhibit, National Association of Women Artists 

2020   New Member Exhibition, (online), National Association of Women Artists   

2020   Broward Art Guild Gallery Fort Lauderdale, Fl

2019   Highland Beach Library, Highland Beach FL

2019   6" x 6" Exhibit Cornell Museum, Delray Beach, FL

2018   Heart of Delray, Delray Beach, FL.

2018   Art Bravo, Art Serve, Fort Lauderdale, FL

2018   Signature Members Exhibit, Artist Guild Gallery, Boca Raton, FL

2017   Signature Members Exhibit, Artist Guild Gallery, Boca Raton, FL

2017   Signature Members Exhibit, Artist Guild Gallery, Boca Raton, FL

2017   Signature Members Exhibit, Artist Guild Gallery, Boca Raton, FL

2017   Signature Members Exhibit, Artist Guild Gallery, Boca Raton, FL

2017   6" x 6" Exhibit, Cornell Museum, Delray Beach, FL

2017   Artists Guild Gallery FAU Living Room Theater, Boca Raton, FL 

2017   Artists Guild Gallery, Boca Raton Regional High School, Boca Raton, FL 

2017   Delray Art League, Arts Garage, Delray Beach, FL  

2016   Signature Members Exhibit, Artists Guild Gallery, Delray Beach, FL  
2016   Still Life Exhibit, Chamber of Commerce, Delray Beach, FL    
2016   Signature Members Exhibit, Artists' Guild Gallery, Delray Beach, FL    
2016   Art Walk Event, Cornell Museum, Delray Beach, FL    
2016   Art Walk Gallery Exhibit, Cornell Museum, Delray Beach, FL    
2016   Gallery Exhibit, Arts Garage, Delray Beach, FL  
2016   Autumn Rising, Milagro Center, Delray Beach, FL   
2016   Gallery Exhibit, Delray Beach City Hall, Delray Beach, FL    
2015   Exposure, Ceres Gallery, New York, NY    
2015   Humana Arcana, Gallery d'Arte, New York, NY    
2015   Five Senses +1, Elga Wimmer Gallery, New York, NY   
2015   Summer, The Center for Contemporary Art, Bedminster Township, NJ 

2015   Gallery Exhibit, MPAC Mayo Performing Arts Center, Morristown, NJ 

2014   Gallery Exhibit, Linda Grandis Blatt Gallery, Morristown, NJ     
2014   Art Student's League, Phyllis Harriman Mason Gallery, New York, NY     
2013   Winter Wonderland, Morris County Art Association, Morristown, NJ

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PUBLICATIONS

2022  Tools of the Trade, National Association of Women Artists Magazine, Winter edition

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