Christian Jamison Luck

 

November 27, 1978 - October 17, 2023

Greenwood

 

Charles Frace

Royal Pride - African Lions by Charles Frace' 1981 signed limited edition of only 5,000 art prints with a 21 x 34 image. Found in the attic. Signed. Framed. Un-numbered. Certificate and 11x14 sketch included.
Priced at $225 unframed. 

11x14 lion sketch included

Back of frame includes original envelope for 31x24 lithograph.

Ours is signed but not numbered:

artist: CHARLES FRACE

Date: 1981

Lithograph, signed in pencil

Edition of 5000 (2500 not numbered)

Image Size: 21 x 34 inches

Reclining in the shade, Charles Fracé’s rendering of a pride of lions in Africa is based on his own experience working in the area to learn more about the animals and perfect his representations of them. Huddled around one another, the lions appear relaxed and regal as the apex predators of the serengeti. An art package including a signed framed lithograph, affidavit of limited edition, 11x14 photo copy of a lion sketch and complete full-size envelope for the lithograph itself. MSRP was about $225

Charles Fracé was born in 1926 in a small town in eastern Pennsylvania. He began drawing at five and taught himself to paint when he was fifteen. Fracé remembers wanting to be an artist from an early age. His self-instructed talent earned him a scholarship to Philadelphia’s Museum School of Art, where he graduated with honors. In 1955, Fracé began a professional career as a freelance illustrator in New York City. Eventually, he became one of the nation's most sought-after illustrators of wildlife. However, Fracé soon grew frustrated by the restrictions of illustrating ideas conceived by others and longed to paint some of his own. He finished only one, which his wife, Elke, took to a nearby art gallery. They insisted on displaying the painting in the gallery, and it sold that same afternoon. In 1973, with the issue of Fracé's first limited edition print, he had finally made the permanent change to fine art. Fracé brings to his art over three decades of personal research and a close kinship with animals. Fracé and his art has been the subject of two books. Perhaps the greatest honor of his career came in October 1992, when Fracé was recognized with a one-man exhibit of thirty-six of his paintings at the National Museum of Natural History of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. Charles Fracé passed away December 16, 2005 after a long illness. Mr. Fracé's legacy will continue to live on in his masterful work which has captivated art collectors and intrigued nature experts for over thirty years.

2022

Twenty Twenty-Two

In May of '22 I experienced a cardiac arrest. After a dozen shocks my heart was re-started. Those shocks put me in a state of physical imbalance that affected my kidneys, my gall bladder and my memory. In June, I found myself in a rehab center with no support from my family. I didn't know why I was there.  

My wife was smoking meth and refused to contact me. I had no clothes and nothing of my own. For six months I bounced between hospitals, was forced into dialysis and a tube from my stomach to my gallbladder drained into a bag I had to carry wherever I went. 

I became unable to stand and bedridden while ambulances were used to transport me to dialysis. I hated dialysis. Six hours of sitting in agony three times a week. In June I was bleeding from an ulcer and Palms of Pasadena Hospital cauterized my ulcer. 

I insisted my kidneys were re-evaluated and I was removed from dialysis. My gall bladder began to work and the tube was removed. It took another two months for me to learn to walk again and I was released from the rehab center. 

My wife refused to let me in my house. I had PCSO convince her it was my right. In December she accused me of beating her and I was issued a "No Contact" order and arrested. 10 days later Pinellas dropped the charges but I had left Florida to live with my son. 

On her birthday, January 1st, she suffered a stroke and died January 13th (a Friday). I flew back to Florida, sold my house in 15 days and returned to my son's apartment. I am still healing.