FRANK COLE
Frank Cole – Artist Statement
My mother was an artist, a fashion illustrator, and my father was a dairy farmer so I grew up on a farm in Virginia wanting to be an artist.
The rural life with plants, weather, and dogs was greatly appealing and eventually became the backbone of my work. I supported myself as a landscape designer after an MFA at Yale. Early paintings were the Emotional Still Lifes revolving around my own personal demons.
At age 40 I moved to Florida for a few years and became very influenced by the closeness of nature, the sea and the weather.
I painted scores of Florida maps depicting changes wrought by weather and/or man. These influences still stand with me.
Recent work revolves around ocean, sky, and mountains. The Rebuilding the Sky series, along with the smaller Ocean Wave series has been joined with the Mountains in Blue series, all of which are ongoing. My use of storms and sunsets, mountains and waves suggest the fleeting quality of time as well as the vulnerability of man. I also like to allude to the indifference of nature toward man even as he tries to conquer it.
Currently my main focus is the larger scale Blue Mountains along with the smaller wave sets of the High Water series. I hope to exhibit these two series together to form a Blue Mountains/High Water solo show. It's funny, and interesting to me to see these paintings come together. I grew up with a view of the Blue Ridge mountains out the kitchen window and also a love of the open sky, which I have to invent living here in Rockville. However, it is true that I see the erosion of the natural world, over my lifetime, and mainly work with this in mind. It is, perhaps, man's fate that lies somewhere ensnared by drought and flood.
Frank Cole
My mother was an artist, a fashion illustrator, and my father was a dairy farmer so I grew up on a farm in Virginia wanting to be an artist.
The rural life with plants, weather, and dogs was greatly appealing and eventually became the backbone of my work. I supported myself as a landscape designer after an MFA at Yale. Early paintings were the Emotional Still Lifes revolving around my own personal demons.
At age 40 I moved to Florida for a few years and became very influenced by the closeness of nature, the sea and the weather.
I painted scores of Florida maps depicting changes wrought by weather and/or man. These influences still stand with me.
Recent work revolves around ocean, sky, and mountains. The Rebuilding the Sky series, along with the smaller Ocean Wave series has been joined with the Mountains in Blue series, all of which are ongoing. My use of storms and sunsets, mountains and waves suggest the fleeting quality of time as well as the vulnerability of man. I also like to allude to the indifference of nature toward man even as he tries to conquer it.
Currently my main focus is the larger scale Blue Mountains along with the smaller wave sets of the High Water series. I hope to exhibit these two series together to form a Blue Mountains/High Water solo show. It's funny, and interesting to me to see these paintings come together. I grew up with a view of the Blue Ridge mountains out the kitchen window and also a love of the open sky, which I have to invent living here in Rockville. However, it is true that I see the erosion of the natural world, over my lifetime, and mainly work with this in mind. It is, perhaps, man's fate that lies somewhere ensnared by drought and flood.
Frank Cole
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