September - October 2004 | See Past News

Hello friends and welcome to the Frazetta website:

Flooding at the Frazetta estate after Hurricane Ivan Drops 12 inches of rain.

Frank is doing well and has finished the Reign of Wizardry painting. It is not uncommon for him to take a wonderful painting off the wall and rework certain areas to his liking or paint over the entire canvas and start from scratch. I own the original Atlantis painting that was done in 1973 and if you go to the biography section on this web site, 1970’s, you can read how my Father was about to paint over the original half finished painting in white gesso before I took it of his easel and replaced it with a new blank canvas. My Father would rather paint over a valuable finished or unfinished original painting before spending an hour driving in to town to buy another canvas board. As valuable as he already knows his works of art are or will be it seems ironic that he would not take a drive and replenish his art boards. This is why numerous paintings were done on pieces of wall board that were actually cut out of the wall in the cellar of his long island home back in the 1960’s. I remember on a few occasions when he had a dead line and stores were closed on Sunday that this was his only option to go down stairs and saw a piece of the wall out without mom finding the hole in the wall before he could patch up the hole. It just reassures what Mrs. Frazetta has always told everyone, he is lazy. Well, I would not go to that extreme based on the thousands of pictures that he has created in his life time.

Everyone agrees the Reign of Wizardry is one of the most powerful and erotic oil paintings Frank has ever created and with just a handful of close friends having the privilege to see since its release in paper back in 1967. He was never totally satisfied with the detail in the foreground and has added a couple of demons to the picture with his left hand. It is erotic in nature and we are hoping to offer this magnificent painting in a lithograph or Masters collection in the upcoming year.

We have finalized the apparel and jewelry line and now taking orders. I had attended the Chiller convention in New Jersey last week to see the response of the fans to the apparel line. I want to thank Kevin who ran the show at the Sheraton lodge for a first class time including all the comps I did receive with a few close friends. He has just purchased my sisters home and a minimum of 3 times a week sits with my Father and takes art lessons. He has improved immensely since the first time I had seen his work, and who better to take art lessons with. The new shirts, rings and mugs are in the gallery store where you may see the entire product line. If you place an order you will be linked to our other web site called Frazetta apparel. So to clarify that there is no confusion when placing an order for any of the apparel line, it will be drop shipped from another location other than the Frazetta gallery in Pennsylvania.

Shortly we will have a new section added to the site pertaining to the museum. “Museum virtual tour”. It will consist of the museums floor plan including the three display walls on the interior left. What we are trying to do is give the viewer a perspective of the museums layout and show you where and what original art is currently being displayed in the gallery. You will have access to scroll through the museum and look at most of the art hanging on the walls. You will also have the capability to zoom in on numerous oil paintings and get some close-up looks at these masterpieces. We have been working on upgrading the entire site for months and will be launching a whole new look by the beginning of the year. We originally
launched our site in 1999, and due to the size of the web site we were limited to what we could do. We did realize the quality of our images were poor compare to the original art, but in the late 90’s, because there was no availability to high speed networking it would have taken over two minutes to down load one page of high resolution images. The first thing you were warned about when constructing a web site was the visitor would not stay longer than 15-20 seconds to have a page open in its entirety. Now that the majority of the viewers have cable modem or faster transferring capabilities, we will have the highest quality images that Franks artwork
truly deserves.

The film based on Franks life, “Painting with Fire”, has been aired on the IFC network over the past two months. Since this time it is truly amazing what the power of television can do for your business. The museum has been extremely busy and literally hundreds of fans that watched the film had emailed me that it is on television just incase I did not know. Another amazing thing that the television showing did was rejuvenate many Frazetta fans interest that had put their books and memorabilia away because they got married and had children. I want to thank everyone for the wonderful emails and letters you had sent us pertaining to my father and what impact they had on your life and careers. I have read him most of the letters and he is extremely grateful for your loyalty and support for years to come.
Frank has added two more digital cameras to his 335 total. One is the new 6 mega pixel Panasonic/Leica digital camera. This is what consumes most of his day during the cooler months and what he enjoys doing more than anything else including painting. Just learning how these amazing new cameras function in comparison to the 35mm format is still a new and wonderful experience for him. It is like Christmas morning everyday I go over to the house and chat with him about what new features they are offering and how the technology in this digital format is progressing at an extremely rapid pace. Just a few short years ago there was a 3 mega pixel camera then shortly after a 5 pixel that in our opinion is equal to any priced 35mm camera. Now there are 8 and 13.5 mega pixel cameras that both dad and I feel is probably overkill and unnecessary. We are always making huge blowups of our digital photos on his 35 inch television and comparing the quality to one another’s. What we find is the depth of field is not lost in digital like with 35mm film. The colors are truer, the overall quality and convenience of developing is simplistic without having to drive to town for developing. Plus, you see what you have before you waste money on processing your photos. We don’t understand why anyone would ever purchase another 35mm camera now that the digital world is here. My dad is seriously thinking of selling off most of his 35mm cameras except for a few of the collectibles he still owns. I think it would be another nice gesture for Mrs. Frazetta to have them displayed in the museum for the Frazetta fan/camera buff to see. The only problem would be where in the gallery could we put a couple of huge glass showcases filled with 335 cameras.

Another thing in the works is the Dark Kingdom resin statue is now in the final stages of hand molding. Steven Lord is doing a fabulous job rendering the clay statue. Steven understands the human anatomy as well as anyone and my father is impressed with his quality of workmanship and desire to produce first quality sculptures. It is approx 13 inches tall and will be a real challenge for any foundry to produce to our quality standard. It will take between 6 months and one year to get the finished statue to the states once we get the molds produced. Like with the Death Dealer statue that was just initialed and numbered, I will be offering exclusively from the Frazetta gallery a run of limited edition signed and numbered Dark Kingdom statues. Just 250 will be signed and numbered by Frank but they will not be available till later next year. I will be taking pre-orders on these statues against my better judgment after what happened last fall with the Death Dealer statue. The main difference was last year the manufacturer told me they would be in house a\by a certain date which was off by 4 months. This time I am well aware of the possible delays with the Orient and customs. I will be taking pre-orders now and shortly after you will receive a signed and numbered certificate of authenticity that has a photo of the statue and the picture of the original oil painting, “Dark Kingdom”. The colored certificate will have the corresponding number of the statue that you will be receiving later next year. It will be on a first come basis with the limited edition of 250 signed and numbered will start to the general public at number 10. So if you are interested to pre-order the Dark kingdom statue and don’t mind waiting for them to come in, the earlier you order the lower number you will receive. I’m am hoping with all sincerity they will be here by May, 2005.

The museum will be open at least through November and possibly later if the weather holds out. If you have any questions please call at 570-424-5833. The foliage is now turning color and this is the most beautiful time of year to visit the Pocono mountains. So if you are looking to take a drive and absorb the wonderful colors that nature has to offer this time of year, I would recommend doing so shortly while there is still leaves on the trees.

I have started painting again now that my golf business is slowing down. I have been copying my fathers paintings but also changing color tones and adding different elements to the original concepts. I copy it to the best of my raw ability then proceed to show my father where he explains what is well done and what needs to be rendered better or changed. He will then spend a few moments of his time adding his magical touch to the art then tell me to address a certain part of the painting and understand mainly why he did what he did. It is an intriguing way to learn how to paint, and a wonderful art lesson that is simplified in a way that only he can do. He is very adamant about me not perusing this art career because he knows I have the capabilities to be what he thinks a very good artist. But deep in my heart to work under him or trying to compete with the best with the pressure of being compared to him is quite overwhelming. I think I am capable of doing well but the word anatomy scares me. This is why there are so many imitators in the field of fantasy art. I can visualize and compose a picture in my mind with little ease, but to actually render the human skin and muscle without a model is extremely difficult. To copy it from his paintings is tough enough let alone understand the variety of flesh tones and shadows to the correct proportion is another thing. I don’t get that true internal gratification after finishing one of my copies like I do when I create one of my ant drawings for my mother at the holidays. I have sold a few on ebay last month to fans that are obviously fans of my fathers and would like to own an original piece of art that both father and son had contributed in. So if anyone is interested in a Frazetta Jr with magical touch of Frazetta Sr enhanced feel free to call me or email me with a request. Below are a few of the finished paintings that I had done and I can attempt to do one for you with the exceptions of some of the more difficult pieces like the Death Dealers or Barbarian. I am hoping to do 20 or so by the spring of next year.

My father thinks that within two years I could be on my way to another career. Just what I need is another career, three existing businesses, two sets of twins, 3 to 4 hours sleep per evening, 10 acres of grass cutting and landscaping to do every week and school projects for my kids that seem to never end.

Thank you for visiting with us,

Sincerely yours,

Frank Frazetta JR