Fran Beallor paints still lifes that are not so still as well as portraits, figurative oils, and watercolors, often with a surreal twist. In her Accidental Encounters series, she explores the joy and abandonment of childhood as objects fall, float, and fly, sometimes seen through the distortion of curved surfaces. In her Tranquility of the East prints and paintings, she captures the inspiring beauty and harmony of the Far East. Beallor's Glacier Portraits, Dead Horse Bay series, Ugly Fruit works, and Self-Portrait-a-Day series are part of recent investigations in drawing and painting, with an inherent response to the Global Climate Crisis.

SELF: 2020 hindsight / 366 portraits by Fran Beallor 
In 2022, a huge Solo Exhibition of Beallor's Self Portraits ran through September at El Barrio's Artspace PS 109 in NYC's Spanish Harlem. Beallor showed more than 500 drawings and a dozen paintings in the show. In 2020 Beallor had completed her fourth year-long self-portrait-a-day series: Her ongoing project comprises over 1,200 works spanning four decades. But 2020 took Beallor in a new direction no one could predict. Her original idea was a personal visual diary, but this gave way to a more universal concept as we headed into lthe global pandemic. All 366 drawings from 2020 were on display in 12 large month blocks in El Barrio’s spacious Foyer Gallery plus examples from prior years and a selection of self-portrait paintings. Beallor curated an Artists Talk on Art (ATOA) panel In conjunction with the exhibition, "Face it: The Psychology of Self Portraiture."

Collections, Honors and Commisions
Beallor has work in the 9/11 Memorial Museum in NY. Two still lifes from her Accidental Encounter series are in the permanent collection of the Copelouzas Museum in Athens, Greece. U.S. gallery and museum shows include Grand Central Art Galleries, the Brattleboro Museum, and the Butler Art Institute. Feature articles and reviews have been written about her work in American Artist Magazine and American Arts Quarterly. Beallor won a Greenshields Grant for excellence in realism and has been the subject of radio interviews and a series of online videos, most recently on anartistaday.org. She is represented in numerous corporate, public, and private collections. In 2020, Beallor won the Morgan Library and Museum’s online Portrait contest with her painting, “Circle Dance.” Commissions have included life-sized portraits, a large ceiling mural, and still lifes, incorporating meaningful objects from her collectors. Fran Beallor lives and works in New York City.

I love to paint and draw what I see. Humans inspire me, so I fill my space with delightful and unusual objects, the artifacts of humanity, and I fill my life with people of all different types. I also love to travel. Along the way, I meet new friends, bargain for compelling keepsakes, and make sketches. These things find their way into my paintings and drawings, where they create an 'Accidental Encounter' between the aesthetics of different cultures and different points of view.

Fascinated by the idea of creating still lifes that are 'not so still,' I sometimes paint objects falling, floating, and flying through space - objects that seem to defy gravity. But even when the objects are simply sitting in a row, they take on a life of their own, an animated quality imbued with a surreal feeling.

Captivated by the effects of light, and the distortion and repetition of reflections, I am pulled to create worlds within worlds. I often paint people, objects, and locations seen through the distortion of curved, mirrored or translucent surfaces. Curved surfaces create intriguing disruptions, while translucent surfaces lend them selves to mystery. Reflective surfaces allow me to go deeper into the pictorial space and often reveal a portrait. By including a reflective vase, I combine still - or not so still - life with figures and interiors. In some pieces, a portrait or a self-portrait emerges, seen through the curved, mirrored surface.

SELF 2020: Daily Self Portraits drawn through the leap year of the global pandemic 

I make self-portraits to see and interpret my world

Translating the world onto a piece of paper feels powerful and magical to me. Even from my early days of learning to draw I love the challenge of self-portraits. Each one comes out differently: what do I actually look like in a given moment? I am forever surprised by who I see in the mirror. A stranger, a man, a little girl. The fluidity of what I look like is compelling and fascinating, and weird. I have to keep trying; seeking the person who is looking back at me.

Created over four decades, these series of Self Portraits have become an unexpected lifetime journey, and an exploration of body image and aging, of maturing and growth. Looking at myself every day is not always an easy prospect, but I do find my face more complex and interesting as the year's pass. As I learn the vocabulary of my own features and forms, I bear witness to the changes of time, and through that, a broader experience of being human.