A Most Unusual Portrait: The Sarcophagus by Frank B. Holmes

Final version of The Sarcophagus; 38 x 56 inches, oil on linen.

Plenty of people conceive an exceptional idea. Fewer have the skill to pull it off. I place painter Frank Holmes in the latter category. Earlier this fall I shared how we re-connected, he having been one of my art instructors at Ohio University when I was a young art student in the early 70's. Today I wished to share one of his more recent paintings. Though officially untitled, I have here called it The Sarcophagus. I asked Frank to share some of the backstory on this unusual project.

The painting in progress.

"The person who commissioned the painting has been a friend and patron of mine for over 35 years and has bought several of my paintings," Frank Holmes stated. "He is a knowledgeable amateur Egyptologist as well as an art lover. He was fascinated that I once had drastically changed a finished painting (that I had exhibited and that had been published) by painting a new image over a major part of it."

How did the painting come about?

"He and I had often discussed the idea of my doing a painting of an Egyptian sarcophagus for him. Doing such a painting had been on my mind for a long time anyway. This, plus his aforementioned fascination, is what led to the idea of encasing a portrait of him within a highly decorated sarcophagus."

His portrait, and body wrapped Egyptian-style, was painted on the canvas first and the sarcophagus painted over it. "He sat for me, but I also made a photo," Frank explained.

The strip of hieroglyphs that runs down the sarcophagus's center lists his name and profession, his wife's name, and his children's names.

"I used photos of a sarcophagus in the Brooklyn Museum as reference. The rug it lies on and the room it's in are fiction."

This painting was "in the works" for about four years. 

Holmes also worked on other paintings during that time.

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If you've not yet seen Frank Holmes' Big Date, it's a large painting that is still available for purchase. Visit this September blog post. The artist continues to paint, and welcomes the opportunity to work on new assignment.

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"Art is much less important than life, 

but what a poor life without it." 

--Robert Motherwell

Three Local Arts Happenings of Note, Plus Big Date and a Couple Quotes

"I like simple, practical, emotional, quiet, vigorous art." 

--Richard Long

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Can't wait for the weekend? Looking for a temporary diversion to hold you over? Check out McTavish.io, homepage of Kathy McTavish, creator of exhibits running concurrently at the Tweed and the newly opened Joseph Nease Gallery.

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It's the nature of time to perpetually flow, to unfold into something else.
And what will tomorrow bring? Here are three events to consider for Friday.

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There's a lot happening at AICHO these days. There's an Artist Group Exhibit & 2018 Calendar Release this coming Friday from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m.  Visit this page for details of other upcoming events. 

ALSO THIS FRIDAY

Keyport Lounge is hosting...

Friday @ 6:00 p.m.

Oldenburg House will be jammin' again this weekend:

Pippi Ardennia and friends... both Friday & Saturday eve.

Cookin' @ the O

Time to mention Frank Holmes' Big Date again.

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“The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.” 

 ― Anton Chekhov

Ars Longa, Vita Brevis

“And so it is… Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off. And thus, doubtful of strength to travel so far, we talk a little about the aim – the aim of art which, like life itself, is inspiring, difficult – obscured by mists.” ~ Joseph Conrad 

And so it goes.

For Sale: Frank Holmes' "Big Date"

"Big Date" 51.5"x 83.5" Oil on Canvas

Most artists have a painting they return to time and again, never quite finishing but never quite being ready to give up. Not many artists, however, work on a painting for 30 years. Here's an article about Frank Holmes' "Big Date" that appeared in print a number of years ago.

"Frank Holmes began Big Date in 1974 while on fellowship from the American Academy in Rome for his realist work. Inspired by a fellow artist, Holmes wanted to break free from his rigorous adherence to the rules of realism. He finished Big Date in 2004 after showing it to a gallery owner and committing to its completion by the gallery's opening date. Holmes, who primarily paints still lifes and interiors, calls Big Date 'a strange painting that's not at all like what I normally do.'

"Big Date" (detail)

"In spite of its whimsicality, Big Date is tightly rendered. Holmes started loose, drawing 'big bloopy shapes' in pen and ink and filling them in with paint, mostly straight from the tube. 'I think I was seeing it as a very pure-color sort of thing,' he recalls.

"He interpreted the car's interior--doorknobs, the glove box, the key with its rabbit foot, the fluorescent red of the driver's cigarette tip and the windshield wipers--in stylized, unexpected ways. Through the years Holmes changed some of the shapes and locations of the elements, but says Big Date remained essentially the same as he originally envisioned the painting in 1974.

"I didn't work on it steadily for 30 years--probably for just a couple of months total throughout the 30 years--but it was always there for me when I felt the need to get away," he says. "I guess it was a refuge of sorts."

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This week I called Frank to get a little more insight onto this unusual departure from the realistic works that built his early reputation.

"'Big Date' was part of that first spring in Rome… I found myself doing various things that I hadn’t expected to. I was inspired to be like a kid... like the kid I was when a friend and I made a big-enough-to sit-in (but stationary!) roadster we could pretend we were driving around. It was great! This was about 1949--we were ten and both had a real love of cars."

Of the painting itself he explained, "I was trying to create something about the feeling around the things I did then when I was ten or eleven years old. It was loopy and loose before I tightened it up."

Sounds a lot like life, I thought. You're carefree, and then tighten the reins and become more careful.

"It was part of that abstract period that I went through in Rome," Frank said.

I can imagine a photo of the young Frank Holmes sitting in one of these home-made kid-crafted 1949 cars. When I look at this painting and what it represents, I think of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and "Rosebud." Maybe there's more here than meets the eye.

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The painting is actually still available. Frank Holmes originals generally run in the neighborhood of $20,000. I've been told that the suggested "ask" on this is $2,000 plus S&H. Or best reasonable offer.

If this piece catches your fancy, send me a PM on Facebook or an email to ennyman (AT) gmail (dot) com.

If you're interested in an original car-themed picture, I believe Mr. Holmes would consider discussing that, too.

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Meantime, art goes on all around you. What are you into?