Francis Sprout

category: Visual,

Contact & Info

  • sproutf@optonline.net

Artist Statement

My recent paintings and fabrications have portals that are framed or contained by the raised edges of canvas or terracotta support surfaces.*  There are also deep densely painted canvases with functioning shutters that become one image when closed and another when opened alluding to the idea of concealment and mystery. When opened, the canvases and boxes function as thresholds much like niches in the walls of civic and spiritual buildings designated to for the display of statuary or urns. The contained objects are painted or gilded in geometric patterns to enhance symbolic speculation. **   Fundamentally, these are paintings and assemblages that have been juxtaposed to make visual the often-subliminal cultural hyphenation implicit in the American character.   *support surfaces include paper, canvas, terracotta, Plexiglas, and wood boxes. **material and techniques (spattered paint, paint socked through cloth, sand, metallic powders, marble dust, seed pods, and gilding)

Educational Background