Artist | fran-mann-goodman

My ultimate objective when working on a canvas is to produce a painting that will draw viewers into my universe and spark their imagination. I begin by assembling a complicated network of textures and layering devices -- pastes, sands, paper towels, and acrylic skins -- based on a visceral sense of what I believe the canvas will need. I have no clear aims, traditions, or conventions that I adhere to. I don't think about where the painting will take me; rather, I relish in the process. Color forms the piece's lifeforce. Layer after layer, vibrant and gentle hues communicate in their own language. Each stroke of my palette knife or brush enables a new interpretation. Each interpretation prompts a new stroke, until a painting with stories within, emerges.

Fran was formally trained at Chouinard Art Institute (CAL ARTS) in representational style. As a student in the ‘60s, she 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 2012, 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."

Fran’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries in New Jersey, the Chelsea district of Manhattan and Southern Florida and are in private collection in North America. A keynote speaker and workshop leader, Fran's projects are often featured in Florida media and on YouTube.

Fran is the scholarship coordinator of the National Association of Women Artists, Florida chapter and 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 open level online classes that blend art history with techniques in abstract expressionism.

SOLO SHOWS

2023 Wander & Wonder, Delray Beach Library, Delray Beach, Fl

2022 Wild + Color Exhibit, Highland Beach Library & Town Hall, Highland Beach, Fl

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023 National League of American Pen Women, Sunrise Civic Center, Sunrise, Fl

2023 National Association of Women Artists, The Sandler Center, Boca Raton, Fl

2022 National League of American Pen Women, 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 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

PUBLICATIONS

2023 Delray Magazine, March-April issue, Up Close

2022 Tools of the Trade, National Association of Women Artists Magazine by Fran Mann Goodman