Painter Frank Haseloff’s work is highly reflective of his childhood growing up on a farm. He spent many hours working with machines on the farm, and this is where he first began to think about how each one had their own kind of personality. This idea was reinforced by what he heard from other farmers when they would speak affectionately about a particular tractor as if it were a living thing. He tries to capture this affectionate connection in his car portraits.

Frank was born on a dairy farm in central Pennsylvania. He spent his childhood exploring the barns and open spaces on the farm. When he wasn’t busy doing chores around the farm, Frank would spend hours building and playing with models of cars and planes, and ships. He also had a penchant for taking things apart to understand how they were made. This was where he developed a taste for fine details and stories. Frank’s first successes with a pencil were in his high school drafting class. Although Frank didn’t gravitate to fine art as a child, he was inspired by his older sister, who could draw beautifully and eventually become an illustrator. Inspired by his sister’s drawing abilities, he took some illustration classes at community college. Once he took his first painting class, he was sold on pursuing art in college.

Frank attended several community colleges, eventually majoring in art at San Francisco State University. Even though he studied art, he chose not to pursue fine art as a career right away. It wasn’t until a few years after graduating, as he was coloring with his young children in their coloring books that Frank had the epiphany that he still had a passion for creating and that he should pursue art seriously. He began taking classes and workshops online and reading books about different aspects of art that he felt he needed to improve his skills.

Frank’s skill developed quickly, fuelled by his newfound passion, and soon he was showing and selling his work.

Frank’s studio is located in Concord, CA. His work starts with a flash of inspiration. “I can see the finished painting in my mind” The ideas come from things he’s seen or pictures he’s taken. Frank loves the problem-solving challenge – each painting presents its unique puzzle – and he wants each painting to tell a story.

Frank has a natural predilection for detailed work, which he fought for years until he discovered the Photorealists. In their intricate work, Frank felt he finally had permission to pursue the intricate and precise compositions that he knew spoke true to how he saw the world around him in his mind.

Frank uses layers and glazes of paint to develop the volumes in his mind-blowingly intricate paintings of cars, trucks, and other machines.

Frank’s art is unique because he strives to create paintings that feel alive and have a story to tell. He believes that by using a particular perspective, he can create art that will resonate with viewers.

Frank does a lot of commission work, painting people’s cars. He loves the meaning his artwork holds for the person who commissioned him to capture the essence of a beloved automobile or other object.

In addition to having work in private collections across the country, Frank has earned praise and acclaim for his work and is an associate member of the Oil Painters of America, the International Guild of Realism, the American Association of Professional Painters, and the National Oil and Acrylic Painters Society. He has shown his art with the Valley Art Gallery and Saatchi Art. He has received recognition for his work from the NOAPS 2021 online show, the Sebastopol Center for the Arts, the AAPL Grand National online show, and the IGOR spring online show.

Frank believes that art is a critical component of a healthy society. He observes that people want to feel that they are seen and represented, and heard. Art, according to Frank, articulates those thoughts and feelings that people may have but are not conscious of.

“My paintings are a kind of portrait of beautiful objects,” Haseloff says, “they capture the viewer’s attention and then invite the viewer to look at something he or she might have seen hundreds of times in an entirely new way.” Each of Frankf’s paintings is an exploration of light, shadow, shape, and color and an invitation for the viewer to step into the world of the painting and explore it for themselves.

To view more of Frank Soenke Haseloff’s art, visit soenkefineart.com