A Brief Histroy of Fran

My name is Fran Mc Cann, I was born in Belfast in 1945 and now live in county Galway in the west of Ireland. All my life I have been driven by art, a lot of my inspiration comes from the music that I listened too growing up. Also as a child I loved to listen to old Irish mythological stories, over the course of time I would knit the music and the old stories together and the results of this fusion can be seen in my artwork today.

I enjoy watching the the body language and facial expressions of the musicians as they become one with their music. Sometimes I begin a painting by simply applying some paint to the the canvas and as the work progresses I can pick a certain piece of music or composer to suit the work, at other times the music itself will be the sole inspiration for a painting.

As time has moved and I have (hopefully!) grown more mature, so has my artwork, like everything else in life it slowly evolves and I cant help but wonder what direction my work will take in the future, the only thing that I can do is keep working and let it all happen.

I believe that to be a truly great artist, first and foremost, one must learn the art trade and then develop the art to the limits without leaving the true art path. I never dictate to the artwork but rather let the artwork dictate to me, "Its not what one paints but rather the way one paints" - let it flow without obstruction.

Fran Mc Cann.

Descriptions from friends:

Excerpt reproduced from 'The magic of Art' written by Paola Trevisam

Describing Fran Mc Cann's artwork is not simple; even though he studied for a short period of time with a great master like John Luke, he chose to take a personal path without following any specific school. His pictorial language, led by a fervent creativity and effectiveness, is founded on a technical ability and on animate talent in the painter whom receives stimuli coming from various spheres: cultural artistic but also musical; the artist, in fact, loves painting with music and realising musical subjects with vibrant and moving effects ori the canvas. To fully interpret Fran's art, we also must understand his profound tie with the music; the author firmly believes music and creativity, in a mutual exaltation and inspiration, complement each other, helping him to express and transmit onto canvas, his emotions, his life and his country.

Mc Cann is a pure painter not contaminated by our contemporaneity and yet he is not closed inside his individual universe, he introduces us inside pictorial paths where we meet single streams of ethereal figures riding horses, or walking outlined and similar to spirits as well as, street, jazz and classical musicians where we feel their harmonic and rhythmic movement come together to evoke existences, sensations, real and oneiric memories.

Excerpt reproduced from 'Imaginary Journeys' written by Michela Turra

Movement and substance are constantly related themes in the art of Fran Mc Cann, who describes a dynamic world full of life. This he creates through skillful use of color which is appilied to the canvas with a small knife and left in its pure state so as not to dilute the effect. In this was the colors explode with great force, masterfully juxstaposed as they are to achive the ultimate level of their chromatic potential: with astounding elegance the streaks of colour reveal shpes, clear figures of humans or animals, always caught in action but motionless.