lillia frantin – The Christina Gallery

Lillia Frantin’s Windows of Summer

Sailboats and Seashells by Lillia Frantin — “Sailboats and Seashells”

When I look at a painting by Lillia Frantin, I immediately smile and think of summer. A table set with a brightly patterned cloth, fresh cut flowers, and a bowl of juicy fruit in front of an open window says summer to me. It’s as if you can feel the warm ocean breeze softly come through the window as you watch the boats sail on the horizon. I want to spend a carefree afternoon in front of that window.

I first met Lillia in the late 1990s and was instantly attracted to her imaginative paintings. We reconnected, and in 2012, she formally joined the gallery. The last ten years have been year-round bursts of happiness. Lillia has kept herself youthful through her painting. How could she not be with her color palette?

Lillia’s playful use of vivid jewel-toned paints, along with her expressive brushwork, are characteristics that appeal to her followers as well. Her approach is naturally effervescent and in keeping with the Modernists, whom she studied while earning her master’s degree from Pratt Institute. These artists included Cezanne, Van Gogh, Bonnard, and Matisse. Of course, the latter, Matisse, famously embraced the open window theme and painted them extensively during his career, particularly while visiting the Mediterranean later in his life.

This open window with a breezy view of the ocean filled with sailboats has been a favorite theme in Lillia’s work. In the painting, “Summer Still Life with Sailboats,” her spontaneous brushwork dances across the canvas as her paint pulls together the bouquets of hydrangea, geraniums, and primrose. You can see the ocean and sailboats through a window flanked by lemon chiffon shutters.

Lillia says: “in many of my paintings, there is a double theme of still-life with bountiful fruits and flowers, placed at an open window filled with sky, sea, and billowing sailing boats. This theme presents two kinds of beauty; the intimate interiors we create, live in, and love, and looking out to the endless natural, everchanging world beyond. Inside and outside, Matisse often used this open window theme to show man and nature as one, expressing duality and unity. In my art, I’ve come to love a theme that allows color, emotion, freedom, and movement to become a harmonious experience of joy and pleasure, for me and hopefully for the viewer.”

I believe Lillia has done just that!

Please click to view more paintings by Lillia Frantin.

Lillia painting en plein air in her backyard

The 2021 Season at The Christina Gallery

As we begin the gallery’s 44th season here in Edgartown, we are grateful to continue to do what we love – share our unique art collection with you. This season will be a busy one as pandemic restrictions relax and people move around a bit more.

“Sengy Sunset Reflections” by Marjorie Mason

We are incredibly excited to announce our 2021 Summer Exhibition with Marjorie Mason. Her 2020 exhibition, “Vineyard Landscapes,” was a complete sell-out, so we anticipate another great collection from Marjorie for this season. As was the case last year, we will not host an artists’ reception but plan to feature her collection on the gallery’s main floor beginning on July 1, 2021, and throughout the summer.

Summertime with Lillia Frantin

Lillia Frantin is a teacher, painter and art historian living on Cape Cod. She first minored in art history before gaining her master’s degree from Pratt Institute in 1968. She was a professor of Painting and Modern Art History for over twenty years, painting and exhibiting professionally in New York, California, New Mexico and on Cape Cod.

While she visited the island to drop off her latest paintings at the gallery, she sat down to answer a few questions.

We started by asking Lillia if her work has changed over the course of her career. Because she has been painting for over 50 years, this was a rather challenging question. Her painting style has remained consistent throughout her career. Her painting style evolves around her use of color and the freshness of her strokes, elements that have always been prevalent in her work. With time, her voice and purpose have developed.

Lillia Frantin Exhibition at The Christina Gallery

Lillia Frantin’s “Island Colors” exhibition opened last Saturday evening with an artist reception hosted by The Christina Gallery. Frantin has been exhibiting with the gallery for four years and this is her second solo exhibition. The collection has been very well received by her admirers, as well as first time visitors to the gallery.

Morning Still Life 30 x 40 oil on linen — “Morning Still Life” 30 x 40 oil on linen

Lillia Frantin: A Contemporary Modernist

Walking past the windows of The Christina Gallery, one can’t help but notice the bright colors and bold brushstrokes of Lillia Frantin’s “Still Life on a Summer Day.” The large canvas radiates energy while Frantin’s palette of pastel and neon shades illuminates space far beyond the painting’s frame. A bouquet of pink flowers blooms in a glass vase. Green stems create contrast with the orange and yellow backdrop of the painting, and the plate of oranges at the foot of the floral arrangement.

"Still Life on a Summer Day" by Lillia Frantin — “Still Life on a Summer Day” by Lillia Frantin

Lillia Frantin’s influence by Expressionists and Fauvists such as Matisse, Cezanne, and Bonnard is clear. Like her precursors, she tests the limits of representation in her signature loosely painted, energetic still lifes. After teaching Modernist Art History at the university level for twenty years Frantin retired to pursue her painting career full-time. Looking at Frantin’s paintings is like seeing the world through her eyes. As she describes “…Art is really what we all search for in life: understanding and respect, harmony and freedom, connection, vitality, truth and beauty.”

The Christina Gallery welcomes Lillia Frantin’s Modernist oil paintings back after a ten-year hiatus. Her work can be found in collections across the United States and abroad. Come visit us at the gallery and ask us for more information or to see her vibrant works yourself.