Upon close observation, the oil paintings done by Ralph Frisina display minute details and intricacies of their industrial and vintage subject matter, whether it’s the dull sheen of a rusting treble hook on an original Creek Chub Pikie, or the exact size and make of the nuts and bolts used in an old Evinrude Zephyr outboard motor. These are the vessels through which anglers and watermen of yesteryear engaged with the natural world, and while nature is not the immediate subject of Frisina’s work, it is the main influence behind each stroke of his brush on the canvas.
Ralph Frisina grew up in the small town of Panama in western New York. He recalls fishing trips with his dad to the nearby waters of the upper Allegheny River, where his family has a cabin—a place he still returns to go fishing with his now-90-year-old father. It’s easy to see where Frisina’s angling influence came from, but nobody in his family identifies as an artist. His mother had a knack for illustrating, and she is partially why Frisina found himself enamored by the creative aspect of art. He took a liking to painting and drawing early on, eventually attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh and then Milton Glaser’s workshop at the School of Visual Arts in New York, which was a defining moment in discovering and developing his own artistic style.
Frisina started his career as an illustrator in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and, later, leaned more into art direction, eventually co-founding a design firm in Lenox, Massachusetts. During the 30 years he spent working there, his design projects were largely commercial. His firm developed the basketballs used by the WNBA and the red-and-black football used in the XFL. His company even worked closely with NBA stars for advertisements and television commercials. However, through all his years in the commercial art and design space, Frisina was still deeply involved in traditional artwork in his free time. Eventually, he was ready for a change, and merged his commercial background with fine art to create a derivative of Milton Glaser’s work, which Frisina defines as “abstract realism”.
Much of Frisina’s work is focused on vintage subjects, such as a 1940 8-horsepower Johnson outboard or an original Heddon Lures Flap-Tail Junior, because vintage items, in many cases, demonstrate character and human ingenuity, which he tries to capture. He is attracted to vintage motors, for example, because the mechanics are all exposed and an observer can see the motor’s inventiveness through the intricacies of its design.
Most recently, due to his love of typography and marketing, Frisina began painting old-school tackle boxes with their lures on display. He enjoys the challenge of painting metallic hooks, multi-colored lures, and the shadows of the lures lying in an open tackle box.
While the subject matter may seem basic, a detailed oil painting of several lures or one outboard motor takes Frisina well over a month to complete on canvas after his initial sketch. And while he also sculpts, finding wall space for a painting or print of a 1920s outboard is much more practical than making room for a life-size replica.
One might wonder how the element of nature shines through in paintings of such industrial and manmade subjects. In Frisina’s artwork, nature is depicted in the discoloration of the propeller blades resulting from years of use in salt water, or the nicks and scrapes on a wooden, metal-lip surf plug that has seen one too many bluefish.
Rather than focus his paintings on anglers or fishing scenes, Frisina showcases how a single object pertains to the nautical world through acute detail. For this reason, he works directly from the object rather than from a picture. Although he resides in the Berkshires, he is a juried member of the Rockport Art Association; the seaside town on Massachusetts’ north shore has no shortage of old fishing-boat motors and plugs around town, waiting to be given new life on canvas. Frisina uses the internet to find outboard motors and lures for sale in the area and buys them to use for direct reference in his home studio, where he is joined by his 8-year-old English Springer spaniel, Gracy. Having the real thing in hand, whether it’s a lure, tackle box, or motor, allows him to more accurately scale its size and understand how its unique shapes and angles are impacted by lighting. The goal is to make his vintage subjects appear as regal as they were during the era of their conception, only with more character and a story to tell.
Today, Ralph Frisina displays his original work for sale in the Louisa Gould Gallery on Martha’s Vineyard, where his paintings strike a chord with the fishing community, particularly during the annual MV Derby. And while he plans to continue to paint his vintage lures and motors, Frisina is constantly looking for another challenge to keep developing as an artist and to keep his work fresh and interesting. He has even begun to expand his repertoire to include actual fish in the painting, which is an entirely new and exciting venture for him.
Like the salt-minded viewers he hopes to attract, the character exuded by Frisina’s vintage, industrial subjects is a result of exposure to nature and the elements. At a glance, it may seem like merely a simple painting of a motor or a bare-bones lure from fishing’s past; however, like the ocean that gave character to his painting’s subjects, Frisina’s work is much more complex than it appears on the surface.
Instagram: @frisinagallery
