Jack Faragasso


Artist, Author, Art Instructor

About Jack Faragasso

Welcome to www.faragassoart.com


Jack Faragasso has been active in the world of art as painter, illustrator, instructor and author. It is natural that over this long still going on period his work should include many subject matters. Everything he does or has done is well composed, well drawn and painted with tasteful color. His subjects include portraits, figures, still life, landscape and meaningful paintings.

He has painted covers for paperback books for over 30 years mainly in the science-fiction and gothic romance genre. The landscapes shown here are mostly scenes from Woodstock, New York and Central Park in New York City. Jack Faragasso studied with Mr. Frank Reilly in Woodstock in the early fifties and he has been going there ever since.

Artist's Statement

These are fairly recent paintings that I did to maintain memories of my favorite sites, Central Park in New York City. Central Park is one of my favorite places in New York and too few people appreciate its beauty. If they saw it in all its seasons, its moods and its lighting they would surely be impressed. These paintings are painted in gouache, an opaque water based paint of a great color range. I work rapidly with it producing the effect I want by hundreds of overlapping strokes of different colors. It is the delicate breaking up of color into many nuances, the drawing, the balancing of the masses and the mood obtained that distinguishes my paintings of the park from others. Woodstock is where I found peace and quiet for most of my life. It is where I was able to go to escape the City to retreat to my Cottage where I spent years and years painting some of the most beautiful, untouched spots of New York.



Biography

Jack Faragasso is a native New Yorker. He is known nationally and internationally as an art instructor, fine artist, illustrator and author. He has been teaching students of all ages, to draw and paint in the time-honored realistic manner, at the Art Students League of New York since 1968. He has also taught at the Woodstock School of Art and the Scottsdale Artists School in Arizona. 


As an instructor of the Frank J. Reilly School of Art, he then became its director after the death of Mr. Frank Reilly in 1967. Frank J. Reilly was and still is regarded by many as one of the finest teachers of drawing and painting in the country. 


Faragasso, who studied with and worked under Reilly for many years, is the foremost authority on the Reilly system of drawing and painting. 

As a thoughtful and knowledgeable teacher, the author has carefully researched and practiced every phase of the subject. He spent much time in the great museums of Europe and America studying the works of the Old Masters. The author uses many of the drawing and painting principles of the Reilly system, and over the years, he has elaborated upon these principles, and added to them. 

Mr Faragasso's comprehensive knowledge of his field is evident in his book entitled The Student's Guide to Painting, which was published by North Light in 1980. He has recently contributed articles on various artistic topics to the magazines Watercolor Magic and A.R.T. Ideas. His latest book, Mastering Drawing The Human Figure from Life, Memory, Imagination can be ordered from Bookmasters.

For over 50 years, Mr. Faragasso has concentrated on not only art instruction, but the fine arts as well. Many of his paintings have gained recognition, and are found in private collections throughout the United States and abroad. Prior to now, Mr. Faragasso has painted hundreds of paperback book covers, mainly of the science fiction and gothic romance categories that have been distributed worldwide.


Mr. Faragasso is listed in the Dictionary of International Biography, Men of Achievement, International Who's Who in Art and Antiques, Who's Who in American Art, Who's Who in the East, Who's Who in American Education and the biographical Dictionary of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists. He is a life member of the Art Students League, the Artists Fellowship and A.R.T., the American Renaissance of the Twenty-first Century.