Delaware By Hand - Presenting the Artists and Artisans of Delaware

A R T I S T / A R T I S A N P R O F I L E

Frances A. Hart

Watercolors

257 West Main Street,
Newark, DE 19711

Artist Statement

Flowers, their colors, forms, variety, and the patterning in their shapes and in the spaces between them, have always fascinated me. I have an intuitive approach to each painting and allow the flowers to determine my interpretation of them. The works evolve, permitting me to explore forms and their variety. I am interested in the visual relationship between the shapes of the petals, leaves and interstices. The positive spaces I paint are very wet and liquid, very fluid. I bleed pure color into a pale wash, giving an intensity which then becomes diffuse. Thus the painting is a constant interplay of intense color and muted color. My challenge is to take the muse of nature and the aesthetic wonders that exist, and translate them into a two dimensional form. This art form attempts to express some of the infinite beauty that exists in the world of plants and flowers.

About the Artist

Frances Rams Hart was born in Paterson, New Jersey, and attended local schools. After receiving a Master of Fine Arts degree from Catholic University in Washington, D.C., she studied in New York City at The Art Students League with George Grosz, the Pratt Graphic Center, and the Craft Students League. At the Delaware Art Museum, she studied Weaving with Louise Todd, and Welded Steel Sculpture with LeRoy Smith. At the University of Delaware, she studied Etching and Lithography with Michael Miller, Patricia Zirin, and Rosemary Lane Hooper, and Egg Tempera Painting and Indirect Oil Painting with Hilton Brown.

Ms. Hart has exhibited paintings, prints, and sculpture in many group shows and juried exhibits in New York City, Washington, D.C., West Chester, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, such as at the National Arts Club, the Smithsonian Institute, the Delaware Art Museum annual exhibition and the University of Delaware Regional Art Exhibit.

She has won awards in many of these shows. She has also had several one-woman exhibits in Delaware and Pennsylvania. Ms. Hart has been commissioned to do sculpture for many churches around the country. These include a wall panel for St. Christopher’s Chapel in New York City, and a Carved wood Mother and Child, plus bronze Stations of the Cross for the Christian Brothers Chapel in Napa, California.

The work of Ms. Hart is in many private collections throughout the country, including locally, Wilmington Trust Company, and MBNA.