To Tell a Story with Paint: An Interview with Frank Cole

Working in the design industry has many perks, but our favorite by far is the opportunity to learn a little bit about each of our customers. Every story is unique, and here at Studio Shed we have the pleasure of getting an inside look into our customers' passions and livelihood. Learning the purpose behind each individual's Studio Shed and hearing how they will be used inspires us every day – so much so that we feel compelled to share some of those stories with you! Allow me to introduce you to Frank Cole. Frank is a Virginia native who currently resides in Rockville, Maryland. He had a rural upbringing on a Dairy Farm in Loudon County, Virginia, which ultimately led to a life as a landscape designer and real estate investor before turning his passion for art into a full-time career.

It's easy to see that Frank's artwork is captivating to the eye, but the deeper meaning behind the brush strokes is equally as enthralling. In his own words, he works at making relevant paintings and centers his pieces around natural phenomena such as storms, waves, sunrises, and sunsets. He has chosen to focus on the ocean and sky in recent collections "to offer up [his] feelings about man's arrogance toward nature, as well as nature's indifference to man, and the resulting emotional pressure that builds up". We sat down with Frank to learn more about his favorite collections and to discuss his history as an artist, how he draws inspiration, and much more!

Q: When did you start painting and why?
A: When I was around six years old, I drew a picture of a robin. It was black with a red breast on a faded yellow paper. I thought it was great. The next morning, I grabbed the drawing to take to kindergarten. I stood at the driveway waiting for my mother to drive me there. After a while, she came out of the house and explained to me that there was no school that day, it was Saturday. So, I've always wanted to make art, this is my most startling, earliest memory.

Q: How did you get started with your art? Are you self-taught?
A: My mother was an artist. She saw my interest and showed me a few things but always wanted me to be more practical. She had come through the Depression and WWII. But my parents did not stop me from going to art school. I did my BFA at Virginia Commonwealth U. and my MFA at Yale. I spent those years mainly doing drawing, etching, and painting. I turned to the fine arts my first year at VCU when I saw the painting studios. I was home.

For the most part, my work has been influenced by the old Masters, the Impressionists, and post-war American art of the 50s and 60s. Though I have enjoyed several terrific teachers, I have mostly followed my own leanings.

Q: What is your technique/process? What materials do you use?
A: I generally start with a title, words that resonate with me, and offer guidance on the direction of the piece. I rarely end up painting the painting I thought I was doing. That's the best part, seeing how it comes out. Of course, some paintings blow up, change course drastically, and sometimes paint themselves if I get out of the way. I use acrylics now. For most of my career, I used oils, but now acrylics offer sounder collage use. I miss the color in oils though.

Q: What inspires you and your art?
A: Earlier in my career, emotional experiences were my subject matter. Breakups, fragility, the dark places of my soul fed into my paintings. A still life painting full of fear, hurt, loss. After moving to Florida, I painted small maps of the state showing environmental damage and mistakes caused by man. Florida the vulnerable.

For the last six or seven years, I've worked on the Rebuilding the Sky series. Paintings of mankind messing with nature. Mankind screwing up and then trying to fix it, making it worse. Intermixed along the way are wave drawings and paintings, a series I started back in 1980.

Q: You mentioned during our first meeting that there is a relevance between your art and construction. Can you elaborate?
A: Well, Rebuilding the Sky has been my main theme for the last six years. Before that, the Violent Local Map series of Florida maps based on construction-based environmental damage has been a constant. Plus, I sorta build my paintings using layers of paint, paper, metal, wood, and/or stone attached to the paintings. Heavy-duty collage. As far back as 1987, when I attached Tennessee flagstone to a painting, construction materials and ideas have been used. Perhaps because I supported my family as a landscape designer and house remodeler.

Q: Which of your paintings are you most proud of? I know this is a difficult question, so feel free to pick a few!
A: Actually, that's a relatively easy question if I don't make it complicated which could happen.

Two wave paintings from the early 80s.
Postcard and Nonfiction, two large-scale paintings that I worked very hard on, the first of the waves, circa 1980.

Vessel and Bruise circa 1987
One of the first paintings to incorporate landscape materials such as flagstone or concrete. An elegant classical painting with Tennessee flagstone.