林明姝 Ming Franz

Ming Franz was born in the southern Taiwan, grew up in a sugar plantation where her father work as a steam engine engineer. She started painting when she was eight with her neighbor, Mr. Tsai, an art teacher. Mr. Tsai taught her crayon, pencil and charcoal drawing, watercolor he also took her bicycle to other villages to paint, took her hiking taught her how to observe nature, as a child she also had to hike many miles to school. She continued hiking and is still an avid hiker today. Ming has hiked many mountains around the world and thus developed an early passion for nature, especially waterfalls, streams, rivers, trees, birds. She becomes a landscape painter, because that is part of her life.

She later studied with masters of traditional Chinese painting. She continued her art studies at community colleges where she resided in the US. In the 90’s she studied traditional “Splash Ink” with Master Paul Pei Ren Hau, she also studied “East meets West in Art” with Professor Arthur Mu Seng Kao of San Jose State University, CA.

Ming Franz specializes in splash color painting, which combines primary watercolor with Chinese ink and brush. Recent years she has experimented splashing acrylic on watercolor paper and acrylic on panel. After years experiments with Splashing, she start to understood abstract painting, She enjoyed create abstract paintings now, she has decided to go toward that direction. She was the Grand Prize Winner of International Artist magazine’s challenge Abstract /Experimental Art

Ming teaches workshops and conducts demonstrations at the New Mexico Art League, University New Mexico Extension Course as well as in her studio in Edgewood, New Mexico. She also teaches at Artist’s Expo, Houston, Texas, Wichita, Kansas, Chicago, Illinois, and Silicon Valley Asian Art Center, California. Denver Art Museum, Colorado, Artist’s Materials Expo. Santa Fe, New Mexico. World of Color Expo, Herndon, Virginia.

Ming is the author of “Splash Ink with Watercolor “and has had her work published in Acrylic Artist Magazine, Acrylic Illumination, American Art Collector, Southwest Art Magazine, North Light book series, Artist’s Magazine, Studio Visit Magazine, Kennedy Publishing Magazine, Albuquerque Journal, Mountain Valley Telegraph newspaper, San Jose Mercury, Asian World Journal in the US and Rainbow Magazine in Taiwan and International Artist Magazine.

She is a Signature Member of the New Mexico Watercolor Society, and member of the National Watercolor Society, Sumi-e Society of America, Chinese American Art Development Foundation, and the American Society Association of Chinese Art.

And is a faculty of New Mexico Art League. You may see her art work at her website: www.mingfranzstudio.com.

Monsoon Rhapsody, Abstract splash color on paper