Nancy Franke never ceases to amaze us. Her work just keeps coming and remains fresh, spontaneous, rich, mouth watering, flawlessly composed and technically perfect. We are so thrilled to watch Nancy grow and take risks, as she daringly departs from her still-life comfort zones, getting looser, bigger, and more dramatic with every painting but never losing the emotional connection to her subject and viewer.
Artist's Biography
Nancy Franke focuses on still life and figurative paintings, although she has also done some wonderful landscapes and pet portraits as well. With the looseness and spontaneity of her technique, Franke’s paintings are warm, inviting, and intimate. The artist’s own wonderful sense of style and taste is reflected in her subject matter, and the compositions are interesting, spontaneous, and a little rough around the edges. It is this edginess that keeps her paintings fresh and energetic, just like the artist herself.
Nancy Franke began painting as a child in Pennsylvania, studying under Glenn Brougher, a noted watercolorist. She majored in Fine Arts at Wilson College, and received her master’s degree in Art History at UNC. A member of Oil Painters of America, the artist has studied with noted national painters Kenn Backhaus, Tom Browning, Kim English, Gregg Kreutz, Sherrie McGraw, Joseph Paquet, Ron Rencher, and Brian Stewart. Prominent working artists of influence are Richard Schmid, Scott Burdick, and Kevin MacPherson.
One of our favorite aspects of Nancy's figure paintings is the emotion conveyed: The tentative child looking at the waves, the timid boy holding tightly to his father's hand, the sweet tilt of the head, the gentle thrust of the shoulder, are all ways in which Nancy captures a moment in time coupled with an emotional connection.
In the artist’s words: “I seek to capture the flow of light in a lively and fresh manner. I paint primarily from life, and enjoy the challenge of catching the moment.” Nancy focuses on still lifes and figures, although she also has done some wonderful landscapes and pet portraits as well.
A Signature Member of the prestigious Oil Painters of American organization, Franke has participated in numerous group shows and her paintings are an integral part of many local, regional and national private collections. In November 2004 and 2005, Nancy won an honorable mention and a third place prize in the prestigious Quinlan Art Center Members' Show. For the past two years, her work as been accepted to the prestigious National Oil Painters of America exhibit, which is quite an honor, as they only take 200 paintings from U.S., Canada and Mexico out of well over 1,000 submissions.
When you meet Nancy Franke, you understand immediately why her paintings look the way they do: full of movement, energy and totally spontaneous – words that describe artist and paintings both.
We love Nancy’s work – they are consistently warm, inviting and amazingly intimate. Franke’s own wonderful and unmistakable sense of style and taste is reflected in her subject matter. The compositions are interesting, fresh and just a little rough around the edges.
Portrait Commissions
Imagine having your child's beauty, personality and emotion captured in a lovely, loose painting by Nancy Franke? We can't think of anything nicer and are so excited to announce that Nancy has accepted to do commissions, mostly of children and pets, as seen below. Please contact us for further details.
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To view additional paintings by this artist which have recently sold, please click on Nancy Franke Archive. For more about this dynamic artist, read our upclose and personal interview from the fall of 2007.
