(By the way, in case you didn’t already know this, Frazetta executed very few paintings on stretched canvas, preferring to work either on canvas board or Masonite.) Some of the other works on display include Flashman on the Charge, Man-Ape, one of the master’s definitive depictions of Conan, Castle of Sin, from Playboy, Dark Kingdom, from Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane series. Among the paintings currently on display in the gallery (all from the collection of Holly Frazetta) are: Scramble from the Battlestar Galactica TV series, Downward to the Earth ( a rare semi-abstract work), the reworked version of Dancer from Atlantis, The Bear (from Frazetta’s second series of Ace Books Burroughs covers, a realistic portrait of Jesus Christ, which Frank did as an Easter present for Ellie, Neanderthals, the Creepy magazine cover that Frank bashed out in six hours on a piece of Masonite, thus setting a pattern for future works executed on this hardboard since Frazetta discovered that he really liked working on this surface because of its inexpensiveness and durability. The interior walls are partially raw brick, which provides a harmonious background on which to display the assembled art treasures. Another charming feature of the gallery is the presence of an album of Frazetta family photos, which gives further insight into the life of this beloved artist. In the same glass cabinets that contained Frank’s artistic tools, were a selection of his beloved cameras, with which he took countless pictures over the years, even maintaining his own darkroom in the Frazettas’ home in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. I felt the same sensation seeing Monet’s palette and pallet knife in a museum years ago, or standing next to the platform Alfonse Mucha used to paint his monumental Slav Epic canvases, which was in a villa where fifteen of the Slav Epic paintings were on display. I don’t know about you, but I g e t a thrill just being around the tools my art heroes use to execute their artistic alchemy. Another aspect of the collection is a real treat for Frazetta conn oisseurs, on display is a collection of the master’s used paint brushes and paint tubes and even one of his well-used palettes. The personal work on display gives viewers a true feeling of intimacy, of being part of Frazetta’s inner circle, since most of them have never been reprinted. For Frazetta fans, it’s an essential destination, since it contains dozens of pieces of Frazetta artwork, paintings, newspaper strips, comic book pages, and a nice selection of personal artwork Frazetta executed as gifts for his wife, Ellie, and other family members. The museum remained closed in 2020-2021 because of the Covid Pandemic, but this year, the Frazetta Girls, Sara Frazetta and her mother, Holly, were determined to reopen the gallery, if only for a short period. For his many friends and fans, it’s comforting to know that Frank Frazetta spent his declining year in such a beautiful spot, sunny, quiet, with lovely tree-lined streets, surrounding by loving family members. Situated on a busy street in the middle of the charming city of Boca Grande, the gallery is where Frank spent of the last year of his life and is right across the street from the Temptation restaurant where he enjoyed dining on raw oysters. The Return of the Frazetta Art Gallery! By Steve Ringgenbergįebruary 2022 brought a welcome event, the triumphant reopening of the Frazetta Art Gallery in Boca Grande, Florida, the second museum in the country devoted to the work of the master fantasy artist.
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