Central is privileged to be part of a vibrant art community. Every month, we exhibit the work of a local talent. This month, we’re pleased to feature abstract artist Wayne Franklin. Wayne’s paintings inhabit the space between gesture and atmosphere – where layers of color, texture, and mark-making gradually give rise to something unforeseen.

A lifelong art lover, Wayne began painting seriously after retiring from nearly five decades as a pulpit rabbi. (He served as Senior Rabbi at Providence’s Temple Emanu-El from 1981 to 2019.) In both vocations, he has been drawn to layers – of text, of tradition, of human experience. Just as sacred writings build upon earlier voices, his paintings carry traces of their own histories. Colors, marks, and textures from earlier stages remain visible, sometimes quietly and sometimes insistently, becoming part of what the painting ultimately reveals.

Working in acrylics with brushes, squeegees, palette knives, and other tools, Wayne rarely begins with a predetermined image. He builds, obscures, uncovers, and responds ... allowing each painting to evolve through the making process. What emerges is not a depiction of an external scene, but an invitation to reflection – a landscape shaped by memory, discovery, spirit, and imagination.