The art of Nancy B. Frank
Studio G to highlight artist’s new book during Thursday’s ArtWalk
By REGAN TUTTLE, Planet Contributor
Local artist Nancy B. Frank stands with her horse Silver Lining. (Courtesy photo
Nancy B. Frank knew she wanted to be an artist from the time she was in kindergarten. With a full and diverse career behind her, the ongoing passion she holds for creating art has become her life’s work, and through various outlets — from painting to photography, baking, design and more — it’s helped her become successful. Frank’s work will be showcased at Telluride’s Studio G during Thursday’s ArtWalk — a free, self-guided tour of local exhibitions held on the first Thursday of each month, sponsored by the Telluride Arts District.
Frank, who has lived in the Telluride area for decades, holds a bachelor of fine arts in painting and a graduate degree in printmaking. She’s lived in places like Manhattan, where she painted in a loft in Tribecca, and an art colony in New Hampshire called McDowell.
For a time, she created and ran a business on the East Coast that specialized in sculptured cakes. She’s also held freelance jobs in the audio-visual industry, and as an adjunct instructor at New York University for silkscreen work. She later began creating hand-painted wooden jewelry and then furniture. Her talents have been featured in The New Yorker.
“I’ve made a living as an artist only because I am flexible,” she said.
In Telluride, she’s done things like paint the exterior of houses and work on faux decorative paint on the insides of homes.
Most recently, Frank self-published a book, “Up Close and Personal: The Equine Paintings” includes artwork and background stories and she’ll feature it during ArtWalk. Her latest book was 11 years in the making. (The book is also available at Between the Covers Bookstore and on Amazon.)
Frank uses photos she’s taken as the basis for her equine paintings. All of the paintings are quite large — some are 6-by-8 feet.
She’s traveled to places like Uruguay, Patagonia, Costa Rica and Portugal in search of horses for inspiration.
Since moving to Colorado, she’s also had horses of her own. Connecting with them is something inspirational for her, and horses from the American West are prominently featured in her paintings.
Another piece of work she’s excited to share is the book, “Our Forest,” which she recently published in honor of her late father Robert Loeffler Frank, who was a chemist. A scientist by nature, her dad loved to write sonnets because of their technicality. He also enjoyed writing children’s stories about the forest.
Recently, Frank went through some of her father’s files and was astonished to discover he’d transformed some of his forest stories into poems.
Frank held book signings in Telluride on Noel Night and Dec. 20. She said her father would not believe the positive response his book has received.
Frank has lots planned for the future, too, as she remains full of ideas for new artwork. She’s begun taking photo trips, during which she travels with other like-minded folks. Not long ago, she took a trip with Nevada Wier, an award-winning photojournalist, to Colombia.
In November, she took her third photo trip to South Georgia Island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. She said she just may create a series of paintings based on images of abstracted water that she shot during the trip.
For more information, visit nancybfrank.com.