Biography

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Born in the small town of Cakovec at the border of Croatia and Hungary in 1942, Frank Kovac spent his childhood ice-skating down rivers to school, plucking apples from trees & playing football in an idyllic youth uncomplicated by the upheaval in post-War Europe.

At age 15, his family migrated to Australia, Frank was set adrift in a world where he didn’t know the language or understand the culture. The study & play that once defined his life gave way to manual labor on factory assembly lines.

Enduring racism, he pushed himself in his new land to learn, completing night school in engineering and flying planes. While his thick accent saw him refused a commercial pilot license, he became Toolmaking Apprentice of the year. A career designing tools for Ford, Holden and Toyota in the burgeoning Australian car manufacturing system would become the next 50 years of his life.

On the eve of retirement, Frank picked up a paintbrush and began experimenting with oils and acrylic. Over the next two decades, he would refine his art, creating over 100 paintings inspired by landscapes & the world of his visionary muse & mentor, Vincent Van Gogh.