Fine Art | Francis J. Chandler

Fine art will always be my favorite medium. I have been drawing ever since I could pick up a pencil. Pencil is the first medium and always the beginning of any art work. Sketches and renderings in graphite and charcoal were the beginning of serious efforts in trying to coordinate the hand with the eye.

I started painting in oils at the age of twelve, watercolors and acrylics at fifteen. I enjoy all three for different reasons. Oils are so fluid and dynamic, acrylics are dynamic but work more quickly, and watercolors are subtle and seductive.

Samples can be seen below.

image of stylized yin yang symbol formed by a snake

Chinese Water Snake

2013 year of the snake. Enhydris chinensis is a crepuscular, or nocturnal snake, found in fresh water.

Sea Snake

2013 year of the snake. Hydrophiinae is the subfamily of sea snakes.

Yin Yang Water Snake

2013 year of the snake.

Legend of the White Snake

2013 year of the snake. The legend tells how the white snake became an immortal.

Metal rabbit 4708

Metal rabbit year 4708. Rabbit wary of trap.

Heavy Metal

Metal rabbit 4708. Heavy metal rabbit band.

Beware Mr. McGregor

Mr McGregor is in the background.

Killer rabbit

Chinese New Year 4708 Metal Rabbit. A scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail - Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog

Monkey King

Sun Wukong (孫悟空; Sūn Wùkōng) requests the horse from the dragon prince.

Leafy Seadragon

Leafy Seadragon (Phycodurus eques)

Chinese Water Dragon

Chinese Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus)

Traditional dragon

The people paint the dragon's shape with a horse's head and a snake's tail. Further, there are expressions as 'three joints' and 'nine resemblances' (of the dragon), to wit: from head to shoulder, from shoulder to breast, from breast to tail. These are the joints; as to the nine resemblances, they are the following: his horns resemble those of a stag, his head that of a camel, his eyes those of a demon, his neck that of a snake, his belly that of a clam (shen, 蜃), his scales those of a carp, his claws those of an eagle, his soles those of a tiger, his ears those of a cow. Upon his head he has a thing like a broad eminence (a big lump), called [chimu] (尺木). If a dragon has no [chimu], he cannot ascend to the sky.
de Visser, Marinus Willem (1913), The Dragon in China and Japan, Verhandelingen der Koninklijke akademie van wetenschappen te Amsterdam. Afdeeling Letterkunde. Nieuwe reeks, deel xiii, no. 2, Amsterdam: Johannes Müller, p. 70

Safari

Ink painting, 35"x50", metal Tiger year 4707 (2010)

Playful as a kitten

Ink painting, 35"x50", metal Tiger year 4707 (2010)

Now what

Ink painting, 35"x50", metal Tiger year 4707 (2010)

Reflection

Ink painting, 35"x50", metal Tiger year 4707 (2010)

Clarinet

1 of a set of 2 watercolors given to Scott Moore for his music studio, Blue Sky Music.

Saxaphone

2 of a set of 2 watercolors given to Scott Moore for his music studio, Blue Sky Music.

Pigeon River

A view of the Pigeon River along I-40 in Tennessee heading east.

Walking with Theo

I went out for a walk with my youngest son one summer evening. I saw the east side of my neighbors house bathed in a yellow light. Curious to find where the light was coming from I walked up the hill and looked to the east, and this is what I saw.