ASHTABULA —
The late Frank S. Frazier, an Ashtabula resident who began painting landscapes when he was 82 years old, never achieved the fame of his female counterpart, Grandma Moses. But more than 50 years after local residents purchased his paintings for today’s pocket change, his nostalgic landscapes continue to grace the walls of Ashtabula County homes.
Frank and Jean Balog of Saybrook Township have four of the paintings in their home. The works have traveled with them through several moves and a major downsizing.
“I bought one for my dad,” Jean says. “Then I went back and bought some more.”
Her initial purchase was made at the Sherwin Williams store. The painting was of Pennisula Drive in Erie, Pa., and Jean purchased it because her grandfather was a Great Lakes sailor. “That’s why I wanted that one,” Jean says.
Jean went to Frazier’s studio on Elm Avenue to make her other purchases: two paintings of covered bridges, one of them marked “Grand River,” and an unusual autumnal landscape with red flowers.
“The paint was still wet when I picked it up,” says Jean, who paid $50 for each framed painting, measuring 16-by-20 inches.
An annotation on the back of the painting states that Frazier completed the work on his 90th birthday. The Grand River bridge was painted on May 26, 1960.
“The bridge is too small for the trees,” Jean points out. Nevertheless, she continues to cherish the paintings, in part because her husband, 83, personally knew Frank Frazier.
“My dad was a house painter and Frank Frazier was a painter at the same time,” Frank Balog says. “He painted a lot of the Catholic church (interiors) around here, and dad bought some of his scaffolding off him.
“He was a nice person at the time I knew him, which would have been when he was in his 80s,” Frank Balog said.
Betty Colby recalls saving her money in the early 1960s so she could purchase a Frazier covered bridge painting at the Sherwin Williams store.
“I had seen the picture in there and been saving up my money to buy it,” says Betty, who can’t recall the price she paid.
The framed Frazier was eventually replaced by another covered bridge painting, but Betty and Earl, who will celebrate 65 years of marriage next month, saved the original.
Jan Volk of Kingsville Township said her sister, Marlene Whelpley, was Frazier’s caretaker in the mid-1950s, when he suffered a health problem (a newspaper clipping states he broke his leg circa 1955).
“She took care of him and he really liked her,” Volk said. “When it was time for him to come home, he told her to go to Garfield’s Restaurant (where he sold his paintings) and pick out any picture she wanted.”
Volk said the painting hung in her sister’s home for many years, but when she moved to Oregon she left it behind with a family member.
“It’s a beautiful painting of either a farm or covered bridge,” Volk said.
Pat Coy of North Kingsville has one of Balog’s covered bridge paintings hanging in her living room.
“My mother bought it for me as a birthday present,” Coy said. “It was still wet when she picked it up.”
Her mother also purchased one of Frazier’s paintings a a wedding gift for a cousin. That painting has traveled to Michigan.
Coy treasures the work for both its sentimental value and effect. “It’s relaxing. Just looking at it is so relaxing,” she said. “It’s my favorite painting.”
According to newspaper articles from the 1950s, Frazier’s works also have graced the walls of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church, where he was a member, and were part of the collection of the Ashtabula County Historical Society.
The Olin Covered Bridge Museum on Dewey Road has one of Frazier’s paintings on loan, and his works still hang in St. Peter’s Church.
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