THE MOVIE ART OF FRANK McCARTHY

THE MOVIE ART OF
FRANK McCARTHY

ARTICLES

WITH A PAINT BRUSH INSTEAD OF A GUN

Frank McCarthy Draws More Of The West Than Most Cowboys Ever Saw

Frank McCarthy was born in 1924 in New York City. From the age of 5 he lived in Scarsdale, N.Y., and went to Scardsale schools. After high school, he went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. and studied under George Bridgeway and Reginald Marsh at the Art Students League.

He subsequently, after serving as apprenticeship at a large studio in new York City, became well-known for his editorial illustrations in such periodals as Collier's, American Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Argosy, True, Outdoor Life, Reader's Digest, Bluebook and American Legion Magazine.

He also worked for most of the major movie corporations, namely United Artists, Warner Brothers, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Allied Artists, Universal and Embassy pictures, doing the major advertising art. He also has done major advertising paintings, for such companies as Goodyear, Texaco, Conoco, National Distillers, Ethyl Corp., American Tobacco, Ballantine Beer, Schmidt's Beer, Jax Beer, Budweiser, General Goods, Norton Abrasives, John Hancock Life Ins. and Winchester Arms to name a few. He also has done innumerable covers for paperback book companies, namely Bantam Books, Popular Library, Signet Books, Ballantine Books, Pocket Books, Dell Books.

He has won prizes in the National 24 sheet poster competitions and awards for his editorial illustrations in the annual shows of the Society of Illustrators.

He long desired to do paintings for galleries, but never seemed to have the time, until a friend goaded him into making time. The first paintings sold immediately, and from then on he devoted more and more time to the fine art paintings until, at present, he does no commercial art. The paintings he does are the culmination of the intensive research he has done for his many western illustrations and the sketching and photography he has done in most of the Western states and Canada.

In his work, he tries to get strong pattern and gives much attention to the textural surface qualities of the objects painted, bringing the subject and environment together in a realistic painting. He uses an under painting of casein and finishes the painting in oil - a method similar in substance to that used by many old masters.

His paintings are now much sought after by many collectors and lately he has been the recipient of one of the Franklin Mint "Gold Medal" awards for excellence in Western painting.

At present, he and his wife, Mary, live in a town in Southern Connecticut. They have two children.

He is represented by two galleries - The Husberg Fine Arts Gallery in Sedona, Arizona and The McCulley Fine Art Gallery in Dallas, Texas.

We here at WESTERNER are so impressed by Frank McCarthy's art of the west that we couldn't resist the opportunity of bringing you these special pages. We've cut down on the text and, except for what is written right here, want you to just feature your eyes on the paintings. They're the real article, aren't they?

(This text originally appeared in "Westerner", circa 1972)