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Jonathan Frank’s watercolor paintings are projections of a perfect, pristine landscape without roads, people, or beer cans. The main theme of his work is that nature prevails. As a landscape painter his primary objective is to depict nature as if it had never been touched by humankind, and to emphasize a feeling of solitude and isolation. He will occasionally paint man-made objects, but only after they have failed in their applications, and have been abandoned, and left to be reclaimed by nature.

Painting since childhood, he is fueled by the anticipation of discovery. Originally from Denver, Colorado he has been living and working in Moab, Utah for the last fifteen years. He explains that when he takes his camera out and goes for a hike, he is always looking for the highest vantage point, the grandest view, or just to see how far he can get. All the while, he imagines that he is discovering a place for the first time…as if no one has ever found it before. He is rewarded by having his mind blown when place and moment come together. Using his camera as a sketchbook, he captures a scene from as many angles as possible. This is so he can wrestle with the dimensional nature of his source materials. His true challenge lies back in the studio where he must “make sense” of the images, to translate them into his own visual language. In the process of building up his painting, each element he works with becomes an abstract shape. Ultimately, he outlines each of these hundreds of shapes with India ink. This gives balance to the various parts making them equal in their presentation, thus unifying the whole picture.

By reducing the landscape to its bare essence, he offers the viewer an opportunity to be alone in the landscape, to experience it on their terms, in their own personal way, to find peace, solitude, or even happiness. A rare talent in this complex, ever changing environment.