West Fraser

West Fraser, born 1955, in Savannah, Georgia. He received his B.F.A degree from the University of Georgia in 1979. The following year in Savannah, he worked independently as an illustrator and began his first serious painting in watercolors. He moved to Buck’s County, Pennsylvania and then in 1984, resettled in Charleston, South Carolina, where he currently lives with his wife Helena Fox. His work through the 1980’s were tightly detailed marine watercolors, which garnered Fraser national recognition and numerous national awards, a 1984 two-man show at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City, and his first one-man exhibition at the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston in 1986. In 1990, he shifted to representational/plein air painting in oil. Since then, he has primarily specialized in coastal landscapes, streetscapes and travel paintings. Fraser has been honored with 9 solo museum exhibitions in the Midwest, the Southeast, and California. His most recent museum exhibition, Painting the Southern Coast: The Art of West Fraser, Gibbes Museum in Charleston, South Carolina 2017. Fraser has been published extensively, including features in Art and Antiques, Plein Air Magazine, The Robb Report, Southern Accents, American Artist, Nautical Quarterly South West Art, Hemispheres, Garden and Gun to name a few. Exhibition catalogs and books exists of his work from solo museum exhibitions, The Color of Light, 1995 Springfield Museum of Art, OH and A Native Son, 2012 Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA. In 2000, he represented South Carolina in the bicentennial celebration calendar published by the White House Historic Association. In 2001, the University of South Carolina Press published the monograph Charleston in My Time: The Paintings of West Fraser, which was accompanied by a traveling exhibition to Southeastern museums. In 2016, the University of South Carolina Press published the monograph Painting the Southern Coast: The Art of West Fraser, In June 2004, Fraser was appointed to the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Arts Commission and in 2006 Fraser painted the official portrait of SC Governor Mark Sanford. Fraser’s art can be seen in 8 permanent museum collections from Bermuda to California. Read Full Bio