The best reporters do more than ask questions. They observe. Like nosy flies on the wall, they are forever on the lookout for the subtle nuance, the telling detail, the offhand mannerism, that reveals some inner truth.
That fly-on-the-wall quality infuses an exhibition by painter Fran Wood, whose oils and watercolors are on display at Morristown’s Peck School through Dec. 13, 2013.
Her paintings put the viewer on the periphery, not so much as a voyeur, but rather, like a curious journalist who has earned sufficient trust to be ignored by her subjects. Or maybe, a naturalist living amongst a lion pride or bear family.
We watch children intently collecting seashells, oblivious to our attention. A dimly lit nightclub becomes a study in body language. Pool players are absorbed in their game. Ladies stand transfixed by paintings at the Met as we peer over their shoulders.
“What I’m trying to capture is physical attitudes of people in ordinary settings — dining out and interacting with others or contemplatively involved with something inanimate, like looking at paintings in a museum or window shopping,” Fran says.
“It’s the gesture I’m after – someone leaning forward to read a painting label, studying a menu, hand on one hip and shoulders back, hunched under an umbrella, etc. It’s all about the way we stand, sit, tilt our heads, and so on, that makes people so interesting to watch – to me, anyway.”
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Not surprisingly, journalism figures prominently in Fran’s biography. Her father was an editor at the old Newark News, her mother taught English and her sister wrote for The Daily Record.
A gardening column led Fran into the print world, and a career on the opinion- and book review pages of The Daily Record, the New York Daily News and The Star-Ledger. She is married to Daily News TV critic David Hinckley. Fran also has shared some childhood memories of Morristown here at MorristownGreen.com.
But painting came first. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York, Fran worked as a graphic artist before motherhood led her in other directions, including journalism.
Passionate about plein-air painting, the Mendham resident is a member of three plein-air groups and has studied at the Centro d’Arte Verrocchio in Casole d’Elsa, Italy, and at the Scottsdale Artists’ School in Phoenix. Her mentors include New Jersey impressionist Lee Hughes and British watercolorist John Yardley.
Every Sunday in the warm weather months, Fran rises at daybreak to paint outdoor scenes across Morris County or Cape Cod.
It would seem, then, that her keen artistic eye has informed her reporting–and not vice versa. Fran’s world unfolds as a series of paintings, not stories.
“I see something – say, even an afternoon sky with strong light as I’m driving – and I think, ‘How would I paint that? Maybe make those dark grays more violet? Tone down that brilliant blue by adding streaks of peach? Oil or watercolor? Oil, maybe. Maybe that’s a painting to be done with just a palette knife, smearing those streaks in the sky with heavy paint instead of using a brush.’”
It’s like that, Fran says, whether she’s watching commuters on a train, taking a morning stroll through Morristown, or eyeballing someone across a lunch table.
“I suspect that’s the way it is with all painters, mentally projecting a vision of what they’re observing into a painting. I suppose it was conscious when I first started doing that – I can’t recall. But it’s so second-nature to me now that it just happens. I don’t consciously think about it; it’s just where part of my brain goes. I don’t mean to suggest I’m not paying attention to driving or the person sitting across from me – it’s just that my eyes are viewing it as a painting, and some subconscious part of my brain is contemplating what approach I’d take.”
Fran’s exhibit can be viewed from 8 am to 3:30 pm weekdays in the Lindenwold Mansion on the Peck campus, at 247 South St. Admission is free.
