Fiona Frank, Artist: Summary

On the Gallery page you can find a collection of Fiona's paintings... They are exuberant evocations of the landscapes of Wales, Scotland, the West Country and Cornwall, Eire, and Italy, and lavish floral arrangements in great gardens.

Many of the paintings are available for sale.

Fiona likes to let the pictures speak for themselves. Although she has a degree in fine art from The University of Central Lancashire, she generally avoids categorisation (as she has also avoided association with any particular 'school'), but chooses to stay free from such fetters and allow herself to take whatever route the subject matter suggests. If forced to describe her work, the term 'impressionist / expressionist' could be applied, and in many ways this is a good summary.

Her vivid and vital work draws its inspiration from some of the most beautiful displays of nature - woodlands, gardens, meadows, flowers, lakes, rivers, streams, moorland and coastlines -where she likes to capture the spirit of the place by painting 'en plein air'. This brings with it the added demands of working against time to capture particular combinations of light and shadow, and to beat the weather: indeed some of her favourite works have resulted from the special light in between showers, responding to the extra challenge of avoiding the worst that the environment can send!

Following the birth of her daughter in 2003 Fiona held an exhibition of Cornish works in the Schoolhouse Gallery at Morvah. After moving to the beautiful Wye Valley, she found deep expression through musical composition; meanwhile in her painting she has been especially moved by the delights of Bluebells in the spring.

Fiona taught art to adults for many years in Bristol; every one of her students was special to her, and amongst them a number went on to use their artistic talents professionally, e.g. to study art in Florence, another worked for Damien Hirst for a while and now provides illustrations for Gucci; also employees of Aardman Animation came to her classes, as did Toby Gard and his animation team working on the Lara Croft series. Fiona still occasionally runs classes.

Fiona is also a composer of music and an instrumentalist... using the same language of colour, light and composition.