Frank Serratoni
American, 1908-1970
Frank Serratoni was born March 1, 1906 in Detroit, Michigan, and was the fifth child of nine. He was baptized Francisco Giovanni Serratoni. At an early age he showed promising art talent. He studied commercial art and ended as a watercolorist well known for his San Francisco scenes. At age 19, he won a contest on a “Greater Detroit” theme, and his subject was a river front civic center. This story of his winning artwork was carried on front pages of all Detroit and Windsor papers. He scored all “A"s at Cass Tech High School. Frank attended the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts on a scholarship. It was “THE” school in South East Michigan and is now called The Center For Creative Studies.
Frank went to work in Chicago, and attended select classes at the Chicago Art Institute. In the late 1940’s he moved to San Francisco where he first started a silk screen process with the San Francisco prints in the 1940’s and other large prints. This process to color the areas was not successful, because the color range was limited and eventually faded. He then created his small San Francisco prints in the 1940’s. They were a lithographed (plates were made for each of the 12 scenes) on a watercolor tolerant paper. The areas were painted in with watercolors and the finish looked almost like an original. He blended the colors giving the right tones for each area. They were his steady income supplement and a big tourist attraction. He sold them at Paul Elders Book Store in San Francisco, City of Paris, and he also sold large original watercolors in a frame shop in Oakland. Serratoni watercolors hang in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco as well as the exclusive Olympic Club on Post Street in San Francisco.
