About The Cranky Painter

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Franky Strachan is an artist and art writer based in Dunedin, New Zealand.

 

She completed a First Class Honours degree in Art History and Theory at the University of Otago (2012) receiving the Prestige Scholarship for academic achievement and the Peter Stupples Prize in Art History.

 

While completing her Ph.D in Visual Culture and Heritage (UO, 2019), Franky was an art reviewer for The Otago Daily Times and EyeContact NZ. She has exhibited and sold art for private collections since 2001, taking commissions, writing essays to accompany exhibitions within the Dunedin art scene, and winning both a Curator's Choice and People's Choice award (OUSA) along the way. Most recently, she was awarded first place, by judge Michael Greaves, in the Otago Art Society's Spring exhibition for her work Allegro for Insects (2021).

 

Franky has long engaged with children's education through her studies, writing and illustrations, and by donating artworks to children's causes where she can. The significance of childhood and children's literacy continues to inform her works. 

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Outside of academia and the studio, Franky has a passion for children's literature, whimsy, and dark history. She has worked in education, the live production industry (lighting), and most recently as a funeral/mortuary assistant. With a childhood spent moving between New Zealand, Australia, England and Scotland, she now works out of her home-based studio in North East Valley where she lives with her husband, four children, and a pounce of black cats.

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