Frances Rhea Basch Summer 2026 — Kiesendahl + Calhoun Fine Art, Ltd.

Frances Rhea Basch

October Mountains at Cooper Lake, 5.5" x 7.5", watercolor

Olive Tree, Toscana 15 x 18, watercolor

Mountain Laurel at Magic Meadow, Woodstock, 5.5" x 7.5", watercolor

John Joy Road, Woodstock, 5.5" x 7.5", watercolor

Magic Meadow, Woodstock, 22x30, watercolor.

Catskills View, 5.5" x 7.5", watercolor

Autumn Sunset, 5.5" x 7.5", watercolor

Woodstock Apple Tree, 26x20, watercolor

Pines at Cooper Lake, 5.5" x 7.5", watercolor

Scotch Broom, Toscana, 18x15, watercolor

Loosestrife, Red Barns. 22x30, watercolor

Artist bio/Statement

Bio: Frances Rhea Basch -Born March 1941- Died March 2003

Education: University of Miami, Florida, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Art Students League. NYC, Woodstock School of Art.

Granddaughter of Nathan Handwerker, founder of “Nathan’s Famous” Hotdog empire, Frances Rhea Basch put aside familial and financial considerations early in life to pursue a career as a visual artist. After receiving her degree in Michigan, Basch moved to Woodstock, New York, to study with Arnold Blanch at the Art Student’s League’s summer school. While there, the artist developed an obsession with the description of form using line and color. Working large and fast, her figurative paintings caught the attention of other working artists and she became a favorite in the Arnold Blanch milieu. Working fervently within the 1969 Woodstock community, Basch became restless and eventually boarded a sailboat with two companions and sailed to Key West, where she became the owner/operator of a beachside cafe. When the AIDS epidemic and drugs ravaged her close circle of friends, Basch moved back “home” to Woodstock, where she reordered her life and resumed painting in earnest. While establishing friendships with Woodstock’s faculty and students, Basch devoted the last twelve years of her life to landscape and figure painting, mostly in watercolor, expressed in vibrant and sensuous hues. Her work reveals a ferocious line quality that compares with the work of Joan Mitchell and William deKooning. The artist’s watercolor and water-based monotypes executed in both full (22”x 30”) and small (8”x10”) format are the most illustrative of this claim. Basch herself referred to these paintings as her “gems”.

As a painter and restless soul, Basch traveled to study the landscape of Tuscany, San Miguel de Allende, Margarita Island, Monhegan Island and Block Island. The locale of each place she painted are recognizable in Basch’s iconic calligraphic mark making and sumptuous use of color.

Basch’s final foray into figure study (199-2003, the year of her death) was executed in clay at the Woodstock School of Art. Nearly twenty of those studies still exist. Each belies the artist’s understanding of the human form to create an exaggerated response to the life force and attitude of each model which seem more like studies of the models’ personae rather than their anatomy. Her figurines and her figure paintings are a statement of the artist’s love of form, her spark of genius and consummate understanding of making art. Frances Rhea Basch stands apart from the artists of her time because of the absolute originality and feverish approach she took with each composition.

Many thanks goes to Frances’ dear friend and executor, the fabulous artist and teacher Kate McGloughlin, who made this exhibition possible.

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Gallery at The Lodge at Woodloch

109 River Birch Lane, Hawley, PA 18428