I featured Philip back in 2011, the first year that I started this daily blog… his work was amazing then, but I love it even more now. I think his bold brush strokes and vibrant colors are out of this world. Each and every one of his paintings is absolutely the best! I haven’t met Philip, but we’ve gone back and forth with messages, and he is the nicest guy ever, a big plus when purchasing art. I have got to like the artist, otherwise it doesn’t matter to me how good their work is, I just won’t love it… you know what I mean?

The darkness of the rocks, against the sunlit shore and that beautiful water… wow… great combination. I like how color peeks through at you through the clouds. Awesome!

Another fabulous painting by Philip. The vibrant blue really just sings… and those icicles hanging off the bottom of the fish shack, well, I just love them! This painting caught my eye, reminded me a bit of home (Michigan). As soon as the lake would freeze you would see “shantytown” – Fish Shanty’s (shacks) everywhere! Inevitably some people didn’t pay attention to when the ice would begin to melt and a few would be lost… bloop… gone. This painting really depicts that quite nicely. I remember going ice fishing with my dad out on the frozen lake. Dig the hole, that was the coolest part. Then sit on buckets with the car door open blocking the wind… no fish… Hello!! Where are the fish…?? Ok dad… I’m done and ready to go get something to eat, hee… that would be after about 15 minutes – wonder why we never had a shanty, ha ha… it was big fun regardless, and probably MORE fun, hey, the memory stuck, that has to mean something, right?

Philip is giving a workshop this year, here are the details, if you’re in the Maine area you aren’t going to want to miss it!

Painting Downeast
Plein Air Painting Workshop with Philip Frey
August 28-31, 2014 | 9 am – 4 pm | $400 | www.philipfrey.com

Click HERE for more information!

Read more about Philip from Gleason Fine Art Gallery website:

Phil Frey was born in Portland, Maine, in 1967. He honed his artistic muse at Syracuse University, from which he graduated cum laude in 1990. Returning to his beloved Maine, he established his home and studio in the down-east village of Sullivan. 

Frey is a master at using bold color to capture the sense of his subject. An admirer of the French Fauves, the 19^th-century artists noted for their use of bright color, Frey says of his art: “I’m an artist who tries to joyfully express the surroundings I love through color and a sense of place.”

Frey’s vision is vital, his goal is simplicity. He is often attracted to what might seem ordinary or everyday to someone else. It is Frey’s ability to transform that everyday object into something of beauty and meaning that has caught the eye of Maine’s audience of astute art collectors.

Although Frey’s subject matter is diverse—pure landscapes, seascapes, and even interiors—his joy in the simple act of painting is a constant. So is his need to show “the simple beauty of the extraordinary moment: vivid light on a building, shadows draped along curvy roads, the many colors of foliage, or the intricacy of a working harbor.”

F L A S H B A C K !

O n e  Y e a r  A g o:           Poe’s Tavern – Sullivan’s Island, SC – fabulous hamburgers!

T w o  Y e a r s  A g o:        Featured Artist… Anne Blair Brown!

T h r e e  Y e a r s  A g o:   William Shakespeare!