FRANKSULLIVAN
Education
1986 BA, Visual Arts (Studio), College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
1987 Graduate Fellowship Studies in Fine Art, The American University, Washington, DC
1999 Graphic Design Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
1999 Life Drawing Studies, Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
Select Solo and Group Exhibitions
2026 New England Collective XVI Juried Art Exhibition, Galatea Fine Art, Boston, MA
2026 Landscape & Memory - Paintings by Frank Sullivan, Boreal Theater, Millinocket, ME (solo show)
2026 Kennebunk River Club Annual Art Exhibition, Kennebunk River Club, Kennebunkport, ME
2025 Frank Sullivan: Familiar Places, Arts in the Capitol, Maine State House Gallery, Augusta, ME (solo show)
2024 UMPI Art Faculty Show, Reed Art Gallery at The University of Maine, Presque Isle
2023 Frank Sullivan Paintings, Ignight Presque Isle, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2020 Bangor Art Association Annual Juried Exhibition, Bangor, ME
2019 Frank Sullivan: All The Things I Couldn’t Say, Reed Art Gallery at The University of Maine, Presque Isle (solo show)
2019 Kennebunk River Club Annual Art Exhibition, Kennebunk River Club, Kennebunkport, ME
2018 Frank Sullivan: The Way I Remember It - New Paintings, Wired, Houlton, ME (solo show)
2017 Bangor Art Association Annual Juried Exhibition, Bangor, ME
2016 Bangor Art Association Annual Juried Exhibition, Bangor, ME
2015 Frank Sullivan: The Stories We Don’t Tell, KADA Gallery, Erie, PA (solo show)
2015 Frank Sullivan: Sometimes There Are No Words, Morning Star Art & Framing, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2014 Frank Sullivan: New Paintings and Pastels, Morning Star Art & Framing, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2013 Frank Sullivan: Paintings and Pastels, KADA Gallery, Erie, PA (solo show)
2012 Waterville Art Society Maine Open Juried Art Show, Waterville, ME
2012 Frank Sullivan’s Maine, Reed Art Gallery, University of Maine, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2012 Frank Sullivan: New Paintings & Pastels, Morning Star Art & Framing, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2011 Wish You Were Here: Images of Aroostook County by Frank Sullivan, Blue Moon Gallery, Houlton, ME (solo show)
2011 Frank Sullivan: Paintings and Pastels, Courtyard Café, Houlton, ME (solo show)
2010 Waterville Art Society Maine Open Juried Art Show, Waterville, ME
2010 Frank Sullivan: Paintings & Pastels, Barresi Gallery, Wintergreen Art Center, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2010 Frank Sullivan: Paintings & Pastels, Morning Star Art & Framing, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2009 Frank Sullivan: New Paintings, Courtyard Café, Houlton, ME (solo show)
2009 Waterville Art Society Maine Open Juried Art Show, Blue Marble Gallery, Waterville, ME
2009 Kennebec Valley Art Association Annual Juried Show, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME
2009 Frank Sullivan: New Paintings & Pastels, Mark & Emily Turner Memorial Library, Presque Isle, ME (solo show)
2008 Frank Sullivan: New Paintings, Café de la Place, Madawaska, ME (solo show)
2008 Frank Sullivan: New Paintings, The Eastport Gallery, Eastport, ME (solo show)
2007 Northern Light: Paintings by Frank Sullivan, Courtyard Café, Houlton, ME (solo show)
2006 Kennebec Valley Art Association Annual Juried Show, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME
2006 Bangor Art Association Juried Exhibition, Bangor, ME
2006 Kennebec Valley Art Association Summer Members’ Show, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME
Awards
2006 Kennebec Valley Art Association Annual Juried Show, Harlow Gallery, Hallowell, ME – First Prize: Pastel
2003 Friends of the Marlborough Public Library Annual Juried Exhibition, Marlborough, MA – Best in Show
1990 Friends of the Marlborough Public Library Annual Juried Exhibition, Marlborough, MA – Best in Show
1986 The American University, Washington, DC – Graduate Fellowship
1986 Friends of the Marlborough Public Library Annual Juried Exhibition, Marlborough, MA – Best in Show
1986 College of the Holy Cross Juried Student Show, Worcester, MA – First Prize: Black & White
Artist Statement
As a painter working primarily in oil and pastel, my practice is rooted in engagement with my materials, a reverence for art history, and an ongoing search for emotional resonance through visual language. Although I consider myself an abstract painter, I draw a great deal from the visual language of landscape painting and am deeply inspired by the landscape of Aroostook County, which has been my home for the past 20 years. I’m not interested in describing topography or identifying plant life or specific place. Instead, I rely on compositional ideas, spatial depth, and the suggestion of natural light to create work that feels grounded and familiar, yet unplaceable. My goal is not to create images of the world but to evoke an internal response—an emotional or psychological resonance. In that way, the meaning of each painting doesn’t come from a subject, but from how the elements within the work interact with one another and how they affect the viewer.
Color plays a central role in everything I do. As a musician, I think about color in musical terms—key signatures, modes, harmonic tension and release. I see parallels between the way notes are combined in music and the way colors relate to one another. The act of painting for me is like improvising a melody over a piece of music. I start with a structure— composition and color scheme—as the foundation, much like a chord progression or rhythm section in a piece of music. Then I respond to that structure with improvisational gestures, making one mark at a time, listening to what the painting is telling me. I want each painting to have its own color harmony— its own voice, its own music. No two are alike, and I work very hard to combine colors in ways that I’ve never used before and have never seen before. That uniqueness is essential. I want the color relationships to trigger an emotional response that is specific to each painting.
Texture is another important element in my work. I often build the surface up in layers, allowing the paint to become sculptural. My paintings are not images or representations—they are objects. I stretch and prime each canvas myself. I build them from the ground up. They’re made with my hands, my tools, my materials, and my labor. I want people to experience them in person, to be physically in the presence of the object. That’s when the work really comes alive—not as a picture of something, but as a thing in itself.
My work is about presence—both my own presence in the act of painting, and the viewer’s presence in front of the finished object. It is about creating something that feels inevitable but is arrived at through improvisation. Each painting is a balance between form and feeling, logic and intuition. I want my paintings to speak in a language that goes beyond words—a language of color, texture, space, and time. I want them to be felt as much as seen.