Glasgow School of Art graduate Jack Frame looks poised to fulfill the lavish potential promised by his 2007 sell-out degree show.
Frame's recent top-three finish in 2009's prestigious Jolomo Awards for landscape painting has brought him to the attention of a wider audience, yet it would be wrong to pigeon hole him simply as a landscape painter.
Certainly, looking at his recent paintings of trees, often delicately rendering on sheets of Perspex or glass, there seems to be so much more to them than a mere depiction of a landscape. Like turner, he is always chasing the ether of atmosphere and the trees themselves appear to take on human qualities. It's as if, through the vehicle of the natural world, he is searching to place humans in context; to under-stand our place in an increasingly sterile global landscape.
His truly beautiful depictions of a cherry tree in full blossom, in the studio before heading off to the Jolomo Awards exhibition, invokes a mixture of emotions, sending this viewer off on a march around her memory banks in search of half-remembered lines of poetry about the fleeting nature of youth and beauty.
Describing himself as 'magpie' in his approach to his art, Frame is also a romantic in the way he engages his artistic sensibility, always striving to strip away the heaviness of a scene, be it in a landscape or figurative painting.
'I guess in the way Rembrandt kept returning to self-portrait as a means to charting the passage of time, I keep going back to trees as a way of understanding the world,' he explains.
'At the moment, the landscape is coming through the trees and I have to immerse myself in images of trees before I can move on. The tree works as a figure in the landscape for me at the moment.'
Although he is just 25, there is a maturity to Frame's work, not to mention his approach to his art. The middle boy of three brothers both his parents are teachers and were instrumental, he says, in all three following a career path that is right for them.
'There is not any real art in the family background,' he says. 'My mum is the head teacher of a primary school in Rainham, Kent, while my dad is a science teacher in a secondary school in Gravesend. My older brother is studying for a PhD in space communication and my younger brother is a drummer - he's on tour with his band at the moment. There seems to be a creative gene somewhere between me and my brothers. I think our parents gave us so many opportunities to do what we really wanted to do. Maybe this is what makes them good teachers.
Residencies / Exchanges
Aug 2007-present Artist in Residence, Lomond School, Helensburgh
Exhibitions
Feb-Mar 2010 ScotlandArt, London, Glasgow Art Fairs
March 2010 Francis Iles Gallery, Kent
Feb 2010 Stratheran Gallery, Perth
Dec 2009 Calidoniart, Air Gallery, London
Dec 2009 Thompson’s Gallery Marlybone, London
Dec 2009 Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh
Nov-Dec 2009 Torrance Gallery, Edinburgh
Sept 2009 Art Company Scotland
April 2009 Jolomo Awards Shortlist Exhibition, Lloyds TSB Building, Edinburgh
Dec 2008 - May 2009 Richmond Hill Gallery, London
July 2009 Thompson’s Gallery, London
May 2008 Wall Projects, Montrose
April 2009 Inverarity Vaults, Glasgow
Jan 2008 New Faces Exhibition, Glasgow Art Club, Glasgow
Dec 2007 Leith Gallery, Edinburgh
Oct 2007 Fostering Arts, Standard Building, Glasgow
Aug 2007 Exposures Gallery, Glasgow
Aug 2007 Degree Show Select, Glasgow School of Art
June 2007 Degree Show, Glasgow School of Art
May 2007 Glasgow Print Studio
Feb 2007 Student Exhibition, Royal Glasgow Institute
Nov 2006 Student exchange Exhibition, California Institute, California
Qualifications / Courses
June 2007 Glasgow School of Art, Painting & Printmaking, 2.1 Honours
June 2003 Life Drawing and Painting classes, Ruskin School of Drawing, Oxford
June 2003 Kent Institute of Art & Design, Foundation Studies, BTEC ND
July 2002 Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School
A Level Art, Geography & Graphic Design
Awards
April 2009 Prize winner, Jolomo Awards, Scottish Landscape Painting
June 2007 Standard Life Award, Landscape Painting
June 2007 Landscape Drawing Prize, Glasgow School of Art
July 2002 Tri-Angle Award, Medway Schools Arts Award
Reviews
May 2010 Glasgow Boy’s documentary, feature on Open Air Painting
March-April 2010 Calidoniart, Top Ten Scottish Painters, Scotland Magazine
July-August 2009 Homes & Interiors Scotland magazine
June 13, 2009 The Scotsman
May 16 & 30, 2009 The Herald – Arts supplement
May-June, 2007 Homes & Interiors Scotland magazine