Artist Franklin LaVoie was painting before kindergarten. Around that same time, a once-popular volume, The World Book of Famous Paintings, helped nourish his imagination. But his artwork underwent a profound transformation almost overnight in December of 1973.
That was when he became mesmerized by two color reproductions of medieval and Flemish paintings — Making Hay by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and A Winter Scene by Hendrick Avercamp. Something awakened in his soul. He spent hours absorbed in their meticulous detail. His imagination entered those painted worlds, where every figure, object, and gesture seemed alive with meaning, emotion, and mystery.
Shortly afterward, he discovered The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien and found a perfect resonance with those enchanted landscapes. Listening to the Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, he began drawing his own visions of Middle-earth. The music conjured images of elves, hobbits, forests, and forgotten realms. For nine months he labored over a single drawing measuring only 9 x 11 inches, filling it with myth, memory, and magic. For more than fifty years he dreamed of enlarging that youthful work so its hidden details could finally breathe at full scale.
At last, here it is. The exhibition includes a broad selection of works, old and new, organized into thematic groupings such as Recent Works, Celtic Themes — including the Elen of the Ways series — Buffalo–Niagara, Early Drawings, and studies inspired by enduring classical archetypes.
