Frank C. McCarthy
American, 1924 - 2002
Frank McCarthy was born in New York City but the family moved to the suburbs of Scarsdale when he was five and it was there Frank had his schooling through high school, taking all the art classes available to him. At 14 years of age he enrolled during the summer vacations at the Art Students League, where he was the youngest student at the time. Here he studied under George Bridgeman, one of outstanding anatomy teachers of America. Later one of his teachers was Reginald Marsh, an artist who gained prominence during the 30's and 40's. Following his high school graduation, Frank took an illustration degree from Pratt Institute and went to work as an apprentice in a large commercial studio. By 1950, he was getting commissions for western book covers, including Ballentine, Pocket Books, Fawcett, Popular Library, Dell and Banton Books. He also did illustrations for Colliers, True, Outdoors, Argosy, Cosmopolitan, and Redbook. During this period, he was a member of the illustrators Club and had the opportunity to participate in seminars led by some of the country's top artists including Harold Von Schmidt, a man for whom Frank had the greatest admiration. Books and magazines were not the only commissions McCarthy was receiving in those days. He also did extensive work for MGM and 20th Century Fax studios and he created a series of advertising art for the James Bond movies. Frank and his wife, Mary, were married in 1949 and continued to live in Scarsdale until 1967, when they moved to Westport, Conn. Shortly after this, Frank began to paint for gallery sales while continuing to fulfill his illustration commissions. Frank's almost immediate success in the fine art area assured the painter he could turn all his talents toward gallery sales. In 1973, he was awarded The Franklin Mint Gold Medal for Excellence in Western Painting. In 1974, the McCarthys moved to Sedona, Arizona, establishing a home and studio in that picturesque red-rock town. In that same year, Ballantine Books published The Western Paintings of Frank McCarthy. The following year Frank was elected to membership in the Cowboy Artists of America. In 1977, his painting, "The Fording" won the CAA Memorial Award at the annual exhibition at Phoenix Also, in that same year Frank was honored with two outstanding retrospective exhibitions, one at the R. W. Norton Museum, Shreveport, Louisiana and the other at the Museum of the Southwest, Midland, Texas. In 1981 Greenwich Press, New York published the highly regarded, limited edition book, "Frank McCarthys Old West."Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries.
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