Frankie Cranfield is a watercolour artist now living and working in the Cumbrian Fells near Caldbeck. While travelling, she was captivated by the light, colours and architecture of the Mediterranean countries she visited. She has always sold her work, even from a very early age, and has a strong distinctive style which attracted the attentions of The Art Group and IKEA who, subsequently, made a number of her paintings into posters, giving her a worldwide market.

She has undertaken many commissions especially in London and the countryside, but also as far away as Corfu and America. Her work hangs on walls around the world.

Inspiration

"I was initially inspired to paint in watercolours while cooking around the Mediterranean. Hitchhiking back to England over 20 years ago, I fell in love with Corfu, and that love affair continues today! Corfu has a magnificent landscape with a glorious mixture of cypress and olive trees tumbling into the sea, and a rich history which has created a fascinating, diverse architecture combined with the lush vegetation, it is like no other Greek island. I love the fluidity and multilayered effect created by watercolours, which suit the character of the old Venetian buildings. These dominate Corfu Town and villages all around the island and display a huge variety of original architectural details from the bolts on the old doors, to the painted feta tins crammed with basil. The challenge that watercolours presents in trying to create these images, is never ending and fascinating.

To quote from a famous writer watercolourist, Edward Lear...

"..the more I see of this place, so the more I feel that no other spot on earth can be fuller of beauty, and of variety of beauty."