Frances Marion (Frank) Faulkner III was a highly disciplined creative artist whose interest in both the decorative arts and fine arts contributed to his work as a painter and his dedication to interior design and renovation. He found joy in his experimentation in symmetry and pattern-making, declaring: “I find it very calming, soothing, and stabilizing.”
Faulkner was born in Sumter, South Carolina, but considered his artistic roots to be more in North Carolina. In 1968 he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of North Carolina as a newly minted member of Phi Beta Kappa. Four years later he earned his master’s degree from the same institution. During the 1970s he was a curator at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary art, known as SECCA, and now an affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art—NCMA Winston-Salem. In 1974 he was the recipient of an individual artist grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
By 1982 Faulkner had moved to Columbia County, New York, near the Hudson River. He bought an old house and refurbished it, the first of eighteen or so such projects. He explained: “It’s never been about flipping them or reselling them. I always intended to grow old in them. But after everything is finished and I’ve lived in it for a while, I see another house I want to play with.” He decorated the houses with antiques and collectibles, and rarely his own paintings. Of his last house in Spencertown, New York, he said: “I just love the dignity of this house. It’s not a grand house by any means, but it’s a very, very beautiful house.”
For his paintings Faulkner often chose square format canvases on which he applied various materials such as bronze paint and metal used as dots or dashes that shimmer. He frequently introduced motifs drawn from nature, featuring organic shapes such as leaves or ovals that, from a distance, might mirror the textural surface of reptilian skin or even armored plates. Architectural details sometimes sneak into his two-dimensional work, showing low relief layers of applied paint when seen at close range; but when viewed from afar these small marks come together to form a hazy glimpse into an abstracted or camouflaged plane, perhaps paying homage to the aged homes in which he also dedicated his time.