Michale Fratrich has been painting since he was ten years old. As a child, he studied with the American artist Eric Sloane and traveled frequently throughout Bucks and Lancaster County, PA. There he learned to paint and studied the light and scenery which fill his paintings with the details that resonate with his audience. Some see his use of light, some focus on the details, some love his colors. But nearly everyone who appreciates Michaels' works wants to know more about this self-taught artist who has mastered painting scenes from America.
Fratrich's various abilities allow him to cover limitless subjects, in a multitude of styles and all with an attention to color, light and detail.
If you grew up in New England or any area where barns and rock walls fill your memory his works will immediately hit you. The colors are spot on, the details are relevant, even the placement of the house on a small hill with trees on the twilight hits you. You remember that sky, golden and glowing and the light in the window when you came home on a Winter's eve. You are transported, lifted and feel the light. People often feel like they have a memory of that place.
Michael paints in many styles equally well. He brings modern colors to some paintings and he creates mutliple focal points within a single piece. Your eye dances over his piece and comes back to study another aspect of the work. That's his talent, making each piece a unique work of art and rendering enough detail and light to make it magical.
We are pleased to have MIchae's work at Threadneedle and enjoy speaking with customers who often stop mid gallery to look at a piece for a long periods. If his art moves you, it might be due to the four decades that MIchael has spent perfecting his craft. Or it might be his ability to encapsulate a memory, that transcends a particular scene. Michael has been a professional painter since 1985 and he has sold pieces throughout the United States in galleries in the Mid-Atlantic and New England.