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Artist Lorenzo Fracchetti utilizes the special qualities of lighting in
the north to create magical portraits of life in this frozen frontier.
 
by Lynda Comerford

A dog team, sled and driver trek over the hard crusted snow of the boundless wilderness on Baffin Island in Canada's north. The air is sharp and the horizon seems to melt into an endless sky. Care must be taken not to slip into the large cracks in the frozen ice as the travelers glide through the eerie wonder of a frozen arctic world.

The man on the back of the sled is Lorenzo Fracchetti, a 40 year old Italian born Canadian. His fascination of the Arctic and passion for painting have melded together to create magical portraits of life in the frozen wilderness of northern Canada.

"Iv'e been fascinated with the Arctic since I was a kid," says Fracchetti. "There's such a sense of adventure in this unexplored land."

He came to Canada in 1967 and was fortunate to find a job as an illustrator with a Toronto based company that was publishing books about the Arctic. Through this job Fracchetti made his first visits to the far north. "I was even more fascinated and intrigued after I'd been there," he says. "The majestic suns, the icebergs and the light that you don't find any other place in the world make it such a magical land."

Much of his time was spent traveling around Baffin Island, compiling sketches, photographs and notes of the northern scenes. "It's an area that best represents the Arctic in general," explains Fracchetti. "There are many other places to go, but it can be extremely costly traveling from one place to another as it's so vast."

Fracchetti's favorite medium is oils, although he is very adept at charcoal and copper etchings as well. "I started out using charcoal and doing portraits, but later I started painting in oils. For the brilliancy of the fantastic landscape, there's nothing like colour," he explains.

Spellbound by the beauty of the north, it is exactly that quality which the artist tries to convey in his work. "So many things are really magical," he says, "Especially the effect of light, the silence of the majestic icebergs and the contrast of colours. It's all so different from the usual wildlife, lakes and trees that you see elsewhere."

The north for Fracchetti is a huge space which can be difficult to portray in a painting. But it's that huge space that also feeds his creativity. "In some way, for the artist as well as the adventurer, the north has the ingredients for inspiration," he says.

Fracchetti's paintings are of cold northern scenes, but through skillful use of lighting effects, he manages to instill a sense of warmth and tranquillity which defies the harsh and frigid images. "I've found that in any painting, the magical touch is light. Sometimes it's very difficult to get the best effect and I have to exaggerate to give more emphasis to the kind of feeling I am trying to achieve.

"In the Arctic, light is probably the best material you can find to describe through painting the feeling of the north. With the Northern Lights, the moon, the midnight sun — there are so many different moods and effects of light and shadow."

Fracchetti doesn't expect to get tired of painting the north. "I've been doing Arctic scenes for many years and have never found anything that could make me lose interest," he says. "There are many aspects of the north that are also a part of me — the sense of loneliness, independence and freedom that I can express in the composition of my art."

Currently living in Toronto, Fracchetti has exhibited his work in Italy, Switzerland, United States and across Canada.