Missouri River – August

Artist:

Frank Stack

Year:

2007

Materials:

painting

Poster size:

28″ x 22″

About the artist

Frank Stack’s painting titled Missouri River – August was chosen as the Commemorative Poster for the 2007 Columbia Festival of the Arts. The work was selected from 156 images submitted by 26 Missouri artists through a jury process.

Missouri River – August, an oil on canvas painting, was created in 2005 when Stack met some artist friends to paint at a high point in Harley Park in Boonville, Mo., that overlooks the next county. Stack called it an “ordinary view” that he painted several times while on site.

Stack states that his “primary inspiration comes from close observation of the natural world” and that he is “continually fascinated by the creative problem of portraying time and change” in his works. Interestingly, Stack says that he thinks summer landscapes, like Missouri River – August, are particularly hard to paint. His statement about the image ends: “I believe a painting should be graphic, with brush strokes creating rhythm and pattern. And I endeavor to create a painting that is resolved so there are no lazy parts. Everything should be important, as interesting all the way through as a poem would be.”

Stack creates his art primarily from nature in a contemporary, figurative style, using pen-an-ink, watercolor, oil, chalk and pastel, and he specializes in hand-pulled lithographs and etchings. His art has been exhibited in Los Angeles and New York and internationally in France, Turkey, Korea and China. Stack has published two monographs and his art has been featured in American Artist, The Artist’s Magazine and The Village Voice. He lives in Columbia where he enjoys creating his art full-time since his 2003 retirement from the University of Missouri Art Department after a forty year long teaching career. He holds a BFA from the University of Texas and a master degree in art from the University of Wyoming.