About the Artist
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 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. For a more extensive list of collaborations and retailers, visit her stockists page.
She lives with her husband and brood of children in New England.
Are you an artist looking to make your own prints? Jess recommends this course.
About the new Studio, or “Shudio”
In 2020, Jess was able to invest in a separate studio building. Needing lots of wall space, light, ventilation, proximity to home and car, and room to store and ship, she decided to purchase a 12x24’ shed from Kloter Farms. The shed arrived fully fabricated on a truck bed 6 weeks later (and should she ever need to move, the shed can go back on a truck and move with her). Then her contractor, VB Construction, outfitted the interior with insulation, roof venting, paneling, plywood, electric, and shelving, among other things. Once complete, Jess painted the interior, and decorated using mostly items she had already collected, resulting in a style she likes to call “Heirloom Chic.” Her great grandmother’s paint palette looks right at home next to her grandfather’s butcher block, which was repurposed into a desk by attaching it to an old bookcase and adding wheels. Her grandma’s collection of owl figurines dot the room, as do items Jess inherited from her other grandma, such as a plump vintage kitty. Looking one direction, you get the clean white walls of a gallery, and looking the other, you feel like you’ve been transported to a New England cabin. It’s the best of both worlds. Click on an image below to open up a lightbox for scrolling through.
Below are the latest images from Jess's Instagram. She actively uses this platform to post studio news, show her process, and interact with collectors.
