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About the Artist

Born in 1953, Fredric I. McCormick had his first artistic inspiration at the tender age of seven when he was seized by the impulse “to draw things the way they really look.” This early interest in art blossomed into an obsession during Fred’s middle school years, expressing itself in the pursuit of exactitude in rendering. His facility in pencil drawing advanced rapidly, and by his teen years it was decided that private painting instruction would broaden his skill. He took lessons in classical oil painting from Carroll N. Jones, Jr. during his high school years. Later Fred would receive a B.A. in Studio Art from Mars Hill College, a small liberal arts college tucked away in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. After graduation he took lessons in watercolor from David Kwo.

Over the years Fred has worked in a number of media (oil, watercolor, acrylic, and pencil), and has taken awards in a number of competitions—in fact, almost every competition to which he has submitted work. Among others he took second place in oil in the New Jersey Miniature Art Society’s national competition in 1980, and in 1990 his watercolor of Little Hunter Beach took US Art Magazine’s Award of Merit in the Arts for the Parks national competition.

In 1996 Fred put away his paints and spent a number of years pursuing other paths in his life. But a few years ago the siren call of artistic expression brought him back to the easel, and now he aims to produce a steady output of work. Ninety percent of Fred’s subject matter is drawn from the environs of Mount Desert Island on the coast of Maine, an island which he calls “my favorite place in the whole world.” Fred has been roaming the Island since 1965, and his family owns a summer cottage on Frenchman Bay.

Fred lives with his wife, Carol, and their two children, John and Nathan, in the suburbs north of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the family often retreats to their cabin in Wisconsin.

Fred's work is on display at Redfield Artisans Gallery, 125 Main Street, Northeast Harbor, Maine, and at Bell Street Gallery on Madeline Island, La Pointe, Wisconsin.