The best way to contact me is via the contact form here http://www.franosborne.com
I am a painter based in Berkeley, California who loves the surrounding landscape and the people and buildings and the ways in which it is so different and so similar to where I grew up in England. I love being here and watching the seasons change. I love the shape of the hills and the way that trees crowd into the valleys and have room to grow so large and so stretched out. I love that Berkeley has more men with beards than anywhere I’ve ever lived. I love the tough, busy, opinionated women.
Chiefly, I love the incredible west coast light and the dry climate that means I can go out and paint all the time, or work in my studio without any heating. I have two painting buddies and we meet every week somewhere in the great outdoors or downtown or in a strange architectural gem that we’ve found. I’ve had a long creative career in design for museums and hell, I even have an MA in Museum Studies from SF State University but now I’m a full-time artist who knows that time is of the essence and the muse won’t wait any more.
Exhibitions
2013 Transport: Where Do We Go From Here? members’ show, Pro Arts, Oakland, CA
2013 Collector, group show, College Avenue, Berkeley, CA
2012 Wonder, Berkeley Art Center, members’ group show, Berkeley, CA
2012 Paper Girl SF, Incline Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012 San Francisco Theater and Art Festival, San Francisco, CA
2012 Nielsen Arts, group show, Albany, CA
2012 Pop-up Art Show, Lottearts, San Francisco, CA
2012 Berkeley Civic Center, juried show, Berkeley, CA
2012 SFMoMA Staff Show, staff offices, San Francisco, CA
2012 Shine, Berkeley Art Center, members’ show, Berkeley, CA
2012 Exploring Passion, CK Gallery, Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA
2012 East Bay Open Studios, Berkeley, CA
2011 Urban landscapes, San Leandro City Art Gallery, group show, San Leandro, CA
2011 Immigrant Neighborhoods, San Pablo City Gallery, group show, San Pablo, CA
2011 Sketchbook Project Tour, Art House Co-op, Brooklyn, NY
2011 Local Landscape, solo show, Addison Annex, Berkeley, CA
2011 East Bay Open Studios, Berkeley, CA
2011 New work, Vintage Berkeley, College Avenue, Berkeley, CA
2010 Not Safe For Work, SFMoMA staff offices, San Francisco, CA
2010 East Bay Open Studios, Berkeley, CA
Franwork 
Fran, Hello and greetings. I am writing as in intern from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland and a soon to be M.A. grad in Intercultural Communications. I am writing a paper on Art and Interculturalism in museums. To that end, I would love to read or know more about your Miltilingual Interpretation in Bay Area Museums investigation. Is there something you can share with me. I saw your posting in November to Nina Simon’s Museum 2.0. Thank you. Andrea
Hi Fran,
I have just found your site and love your sketches of chickens. I am doing a textiles course through the OCA and wondered if I could post your chicken sketches on my blog. Hope you don’t mind.
Regards
Julie Kidd – Kent England
Hi Julie, maybe a click through link to the blog post would work best.
I go out painting at least twice a week and can safely say that being very close to your subject helps enormously. These sketches were done on a very cold day, sitting with a couple of fellow painters for several hours about as close to the chickens as we could get. We were able to study them interacting with each other, scratching the ground, running, fighting and doing all the things that chickens do. I would definitely encourage you to sketch this kind of thing first hand if you can because as they say, there’s no substitute for being there. I’m beginning to discover that watercolor is a great medium for showing movement and it seems that chickens are rarely still unless they are roosting.
Many thanks for your kind comments and very best wishes with your OCA course.
Thanks Fran for your advice and I have included a click through link to your site. It is so cold here at the moment I can’t bear going outside! Looking forward to Spring.
Hey Julie, Many thanks for the link – awesome! I remember the cold of an English winter and hope it won’t be too long before you all get warm again. Keep in touch.