Transform the landscape into watercolor painting with artist Frances Hynes

Frances Hynes is a founding member of Independent Studios I, a group of artists that maintained a cooperative workspace in Long Island City, NY from 1978 until 2016. She lives in Bayside, Queens, NY and taught at LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City, in 1980 and from 1998 until 2013. Frances Hynes received an MA from New York University and a BA from St. John’s University. She also studied at the Art Students League in Woodstock, NY and the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy.

She has a lengthy exhibition history beginning with the 1974 New Talent Festival, sponsored by eighteen New York galleries to provide venues for unknown artists. Poindexter Gallery participated and introduced her paintings. A solo exhibition at Poindexter Gallery followed. Since then she has had over thirty-five solo exhibitions. These include: The Institute for Contemporary Art, P.S.1 (now called MoMA PS1) in Long Island City, NY, and seven solo shows at Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York. Museum exhibitions include: New Britain Museum of American Art, CT; Springfield Museum of Art, OH; Wright Museum of Art, Beloit, WI; Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, FL; and a 10 year survey at Ogunquit Museum of American Art, ME. FRANCES HYNES: CONSTELLATIONS will be exhibited at the Hudson River Museum, YONKERS, NY - January 2020 – 2021.

Her painting is represented in numerous museum and corporate collections including: Albany Institute of History and Art, NY; Bates College Museum of Art, Lewiston, ME; Brooklyn Museum, NY; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.; Portland Museum of Art, ME; Farnsworth Museum, Rockland, ME; Newark Museum, NJ; New Britain Museum of American Art, CT; Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, GA; AT&T, Chicago, IL; Alliance Capitol Management, New York and Ariel Capitol Management, Chicago, IL among others. A commission was completed for Bellevue Hospital, New York in 1988.

Frances Hynes participated in the National Workspace Program at MoMA PS1. She was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Grant for her painting and the Edwin Palmer Prize for Painting from the National Academy of Design. She was a resident artist at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, Edna St. Vincent Millay Colony, Austerlitz, NY and others. She has served as a visiting artist/professor at: Burren College of Art, County Clare, Ireland; Lahti Institute of Fine Arts, Finland; Memphis College of Art; Central Michigan University and Illinois State University among others.

The artist has had seven exhibitions with June Kelly Gallery beginning in 1991. A one-person show of watercolors, 'All Kinds of Weather' was presented at Phyllis Stigliano Gallery, Brooklyn, NY in cooperation with the June Kelly Gallery in 2010. Animal works paintings from the early 1980’s was presented at Phyllis Stigliano Art Projects at Moe’s Meat Market took place in 2015. A catalog is available and six of these paintings were placed in museum collections. Her latest exhibition, 'Frances Hynes: Constellations' is at the Hudson River Museum, January 17, 2020 - January 10, 2021.


'Watercolor Painting: The Neighborhood' workshop will be led by artist Frances Hynes.

During the 60 minutes of the hands-on workshop, participants will find shapes and colors in the urban and suburban landscape they see each day and transforming them into a watercolor painting. One can paint from observation, imagination, and memory or using a photograph of image as ‘source’ material. The workshop will also suggest a way to paint that is economical, portable and requires little space.

  • Past Event
  • Due to the pandemic, we replaced this workshop with an artist talk video.
    This video will feature photographic images and sketches by Frances Hynes that relate to the exhibited works. The continual evolution and reinvention is evident in the sketchbooks, and this material will expand the concept of the show and be of interest to viewers.
Watch Artist Talk Video