Artist Profile

Deep Breath
48x30"

Don't Blink
40x30"

Morning Glow
40x30"

This Is The Way
30x30"

Jess Franks is known for vibrant acrylic paintings that dance the line between realistic and abstract. Her work relishes the influences of post-impressionism and fauvism, as seen in her fearless brushstrokes and color choices. Her favorite subjects to paint include Maine and New England, national parks, lake islands, layered mountains, and woodland streams. She’s a hiker who paints and a painter who hikes—they feed each other. When she’s hiking, she sees future paintings around every corner. When she finishes a series of paintings, she’s immediately researching her next hike.

As a former magazine graphic designer by trade (including work for Greenville Magazine, South Carolina Magazine, and Mechanical Engineering Magazine), Jess has spent countless hours on her computer poring over photography. A decade ago she discovered that painting not only allows her to delve back into a more tactile world, but also to create scenes in radical colors that no photo could capture. She uses the familiar structures of the natural world around her to explore new palettes, resulting in paintings that are at once both unexpected yet accessible.

She now maintains a full-time art studio, creating multiple collections a year. Jess has also spent much of her time researching how social media and online commerce can create communities and sustain artists through untraditional avenues. She has found an incredibly interactive art-collecting community on Instagram (@jessfranksart) and uses that platform as her primary location for studio updates and shop news. Her prints are sold at WestElm, Greenbox, Anthropologie, World Market, and Minted, where she has won multiple contests. She lives with her husband and brood of children in New England.

Tour Location: Parkville Market, 1400 Park Street

Website: www.jessfranksart.com

Click here to see the 25th Anniversary Video Retrospective produced by CT Public Broadcasting!