Lives in:  Poolesville, MD- where I have happily lived for 30 years

My website is:  franciedartist.com

Social Media: instagram  franciedartist.com 

Why you joined MAA:  The Montgomery Art Association has some wonderful opportunities to learn, paint, and teach that I am looking forward to participating in.  I am really excited to meet other artist and be part of this art community.  This is a very active art area and I’m delighted to be part of it.

Media & Subjects:   I enjoy painting in oil exclusively.  My work is representational with lose strokes which are sometimes thick and also occasionally transparent, depending on the subject. 

Because I grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, the flowers and landscapes of the deep south are my primary subject. Magnolias and camellias evoke visual, olfactory and emotional memories of my youth.  I recall the towering magnolia tree in my father’s garden that perfumed the air of the back yard and the beautiful camellia blooms that my mother frequently wore pinned at her shoulder.  The subtle changes in color and shape as the flower progress from bud, to mature flower and finally to cone. I am also lucky now to live in an area that has magnificently colorful sunsets and sunrises.  It is a wonderful way to start and end another great day.

Artist Biography:  As a child, I was known to have every notebook margin covered with sketches of horseheads, hooves, legs, etc.  Besides sketching and painting, horses were an obsession that led me away from art to a successful career in veterinary medicine.  My profession pretty much took over my life until once I could cut back I took a couple of drawing classes at Montgomery College and my passion for art was revived.  I was lucky to find a wonderful teacher who helped me develop skills to become an artist.

I really like to laugh.  For me, it is the stuff of life. While it is great to laugh with friends I give myself lots of opportunities to laugh at myself.  By the end of a painting session, it is not unusual for me to have as much paint on me as on the canvas.  Especially pthalo green, for some reason pthalo green and I have a love/hate relationship.

Graduate Master Artist Program 2020, The Compass Atelier

Studied under Glen Kessler, Steven Assael, Duane Keiser and Alyssa Monks

"Painting through the Lens", Glen Kessler, The Compass Atelier

"Introduction to Painting" Tom Semmes, The Compass Atelier

"Introduction to Drawing" Michael Piechocinski, Montgomery College 

Pieces in private collections, Colorado, South Carolina, Virginia, Michigan, and Maryland 

Solo Exhibition - Signal Financial Federal Credit Union, Washington, DC, 2019

JFK Show, Tryst Gallery, Leesburg, VA  2019

MCO Show, Tryst Gallery, Leesburg, VA  2018

Lavender Fields Forever Show, Artist and Makers II, Rockville, MD 2018