I’m a self-taught painter. While, I’ve closely observed the inspiring beauty of nature and thousands of paintings by talented amateurs and accomplished masters, everything I know about painting was learned while facing down the daunting challenge of a blank canvas. Bottom line, I’m more stubborn than white.
In 50 some years of painting, I’ve worked in a variety of styles. My first love was landscape painting. As a teenager, my pallet was relatively naturalistic. Over time my colors have gone wild. At times, I actually try to tone them down, but the muses have other ideas. A fellow artist observed: “You paint like an “Island man.”
A self-taught painter and native of Los Angeles, Frank Strasser is a celebrated local artist known for his acute sense of color and renegade Venice style.
Unencumbered by technical training, Strasser is an unabashed Primitive. His art celebrates the dream-like movie-set beauty of his native Los Angeles. His deceptively complex and luminous works are tinged with palpable nostalgia for retro LA.
Strasser’s iconic Venice scenes have been featured in The Free Venice Beachhead and the Venice Historical Society Journal, among others. He has lived, painted, and performed in Venice, California, for 35 years.