Harry W. Huizinga
Fred Flanagan with two of his paintings: Maui Morning (on wall) and My Trichocercus (held).
As a member of a military family, Fred Flanagan traveled and lived in many places during his youth. He gained new experiences from living in several states in the U.S. and in foreign countries where he found new friendships and exciting places to visit. Fred enjoyed scouting out new areas and he developed a hobby of drawing topography maps. These experiences gave him lasting memories that would later influence him as an artist.
After graduating from Pennsylvania State University as a civil/structural engineer, Fred took a position with American Bridge Company where he practiced engineering design. However, this job was short-lived when he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War period and assigned to Ft. Stewart, a large military installation. Because of his drafting background and interest in maps, Fred was assigned the task of making a complete topographic map of the base including roads, military training installations, artillery target areas and more. Since he did this map design before the computer era, his drawings were done with pen and ink and were very labor intensive, taking many months to complete the project. Fortunately, this job kept Fred from being reassigned to Vietnam duty; truly the Luck of the Irish. Following military service, Fred had a long and distinguished career in Engineering Project Management of airports, subways, colleges and more.
Fred Flanagan and his wife Pat retired to SaddleBrooke in 2008. With a strong interest in art, but no previous artistic training, Fred decided to take classes from the talented SaddleBrooke artists Wanda Tucker, Laurie Brussel and Cherie Gossett, who provided a foundation and inspiration for his art. Through several years of hard work and study, Fred has become proficient in using oil, acrylic and watercolor media in his paintings.
Fred has an eclectic artistic style and draws his subject material from a large variety of sources: beauty of the Southwest, beaches and landscapes from New Jersey, California and Hawaii and visions of places from the past. He studies each subject idea carefully and uses a variety of media to prepare thumbnail sketches, an important part of his creative process that gives rise to outstanding full sized final paintings. In Fred’s words, “The joy of my art is in the process of creating. I have been fortunate that others have appreciated my creativeness and provided new homes for some of my work.” To see more of his paintings visit Fred’s Eclectic Art, Fun and Affordable at www.fredsart.weebly.com.