The
pencil artwork of DANIEL FRANKS is highly
detailed and realistic, focusing on people of the contemporary West. He
draws from first-hand experience on working cattle ranches in the southwest
to gather material for drawings while helping out with the cowboying. Dan
can usually be found right in the middle of things at brandings and ropings,
but not as a dally roper. He's "just no good at it", and he likes
his fingers "just the way they are, semi-straight and all ten intact.
Have you ever taken a good look at a roper's hands?" Born and raised
in Brawley, California, Dan now lives in New Mexico. He studied art in
California and began college in New Mexico as an art major. His devotion
to realism was not encouraged by his "progressive" professors,
so he dropped his pursuit of art and earned a Master's Degree in audiology.
"I hadn't drawn anything in ten years" Franks says, "and
I picked up the pencils again in '81." Since that time, his drawings
have won several state, regional and national awards. Dan has stuck to
his chosen subject matter because "these are people of our time who
are doing a lot of things in their work and play the same way they were
done a hundred years ago. They're honest, hard working individuals with
a strong sense of values. Also, a lot of them (without even trying) are
just natural characters." For example, when one of the subjects
in a recent drawing was contacted by phone for permission to publically
display the drawing with his likeness, the reply was: "I
imagine that's OK, I ain't wanted for nothin'." Dan's drawings
are not just sketches, but precise renderings that depict a mood and (along
with his carefully chosen titles) tell a story. Through these painstaking
efforts, Franks successfully portrays the lifestyle of the contemporary
cowboy.
The
pencil artwork of DANIEL FRANKS is highly
detailed and realistic, focusing on people of the contemporary West. He
draws from first-hand experience on working cattle ranches in the southwest
to gather material for drawings while helping out with the cowboying. Dan
can usually be found right in the middle of things at brandings and ropings,
but not as a dally roper. He's "just no good at it", and he likes
his fingers "just the way they are, semi-straight and all ten intact.
Have you ever taken a good look at a roper's hands?" Born and raised
in Brawley, California, Dan now lives in New Mexico. He studied art in
California and began college in New Mexico as an art major. His devotion
to realism was not encouraged by his "progressive" professors,
so he dropped his pursuit of art and earned a Master's Degree in audiology.
"I hadn't drawn anything in ten years" Franks says, "and
I picked up the pencils again in '81." Since that time, his drawings
have won several state, regional and national awards. Dan has stuck to
his chosen subject matter because "these are people of our time who
are doing a lot of things in their work and play the same way they were
done a hundred years ago. They're honest, hard working individuals with
a strong sense of values. Also, a lot of them (without even trying) are
just natural characters." For example, when one of the subjects
in a recent drawing was contacted by phone for permission to publically
display the drawing with his likeness, the reply was: "I
imagine that's OK, I ain't wanted for nothin'." Dan's drawings
are not just sketches, but precise renderings that depict a mood and (along
with his carefully chosen titles) tell a story. Through these painstaking
efforts, Franks successfully portrays the lifestyle of the contemporary
cowboy.
