After college, due to a childhood trauma with her face, Fran applied her artistic skill to the makeup field where she built a thirty-year career inspiring women to see the “art” in their faces. Her unique aesthetic approach, coupled with her workshops, seminars, support groups, as well as widespread media exposure, earned her national and international recognition. She was featured on talk shows, women’s magazines and other print media including The New York Times. Fran did not paint during those years. Instead, she penned a memoir and two screenplays centered around her life story.

In 2013, Fran returned to painting after a bout with Lyme disease left her with arthritic fingers and the difficulty to continue writing. She began working in the style of Abstract Expressionism, preferring to create mood and emotion over defined images, infusing her paintings with pastes, sand, glosses, paper towels, and acrylic skins.  Since then, Fran’s paintings have been exhibited in over thirty galleries in New Jersey, the Chelsea district of Manhattan and Southern Florida, and are in private collection in the United States.

Fran enjoys painting and exhibiting but her passion is teaching. In 2013, she created, “NOT YOUR ORDINARY PAINTING CLASS,” which she has taught at a museum in New Jersey and in several locations in Florida. Fran is an invited lecturer and runs workshops and demonstrations in her craft across Florida. Both her paintings and her classes have been showcased in various Florida media.

Artwork by Student of Fran Mann Goodman

When asked why she teaches, Fran tells The Rickie Report, “Although I enjoy composing weekly curriculums and delivering the contents, it is not the reason I love to teach. I love to teach because of what my students give back to me…their faith and trust in me. Their approving nods while I’m in the process of explaining something, their warm smiles when they get it, their great eagerness to absorb what I suggest to them during their painting process, their pride and joy in their finished work. Although they will be painting on their own, I try to be there for them. In between classes, I make myself available for those who want additional guidance.

Some students start the first class skeptical about their ability and are nervous to put a single mark on a canvas so they work on the smallest size that is required, 16” x 20”. Then, in subsequent classes, I notice not only does their self-confidence and quality of their work grow, so does their desire to paint on larger canvases. By the end of the 4 weeks, often students are painting as big as 30” x 40”.

As far as the artists that we explore, I feel they are our teachers. We learn from their lives their struggles and successes and the lessons they have left behind. (I also share their “secrets,” things people might not know about them. Then no longer are they just a biography, but seemingly real people that “are right in the room” with us!)

The students and I form an amazing bond. Often former students will text me an image of a painting they have started on their own to ask for my opinion, or they will contact me to tell me about a gallery show or event I may be interested in. Some beginner students have been accepted into juried shows. I am planning a gallery exhibit for all level several students this fall.

Artwork by student of Fran Goodman

Here are some comments from Fran’s students:

• “I am so happy to have met and attended Fran’s art classes. She has touched my soul with her gentle presence, her love of art, and intelligent observations. She has brought out a new and exciting awareness of color, lines, movement and values; unknown to me before.”

• “Fran brings out the hidden artist in all of us with demonstrations by famous artists, color, theory, observations and discussion with music and laughter.”

• “Thank you, Fran for stirring and waking up my sleeping artistic soul.”

• “Thanks for blowing the lids off our minds by teaching your method! Think I was at a crossroads with painting the former way.

• “I can’t begin to tell you how much of an impact you have made on my life I came to your class expecting nothing more than a pleasant version and an outlet for my grief with your help I have discovered something I love I have so much to learn but even though the process is sometimes painful for me I am glad to have your guidance to help me along in this journey you are a wonderful teacher and a special human being I am so glad I found you.”

More testimonies can be found on her website: www.franmanngoodman.com