Raised in South Western Ontario, Fran Manson moved to Cape Breton for 11 years before returning to Waterloo Ontario to work at Wilfrid Laurier University. While working in Waterloo, she began to sketch and then paint the unique upper Grand River countryside and the fertile farms and communities that surround Waterloo.

Fran has always maintained a strong connection to the Muskoka and Haliburton areas beginning as a camper and then as a frequent visitor to family and friends in the area. In 2009, she moved from southwestern Ontario to Gravenhurst where she spends six months of the year. Here, a very different landscape provided by the black glacial lakes and granite rock formations of the northern forest inspire her current work. The other six months she lives and paints in the lake district of inland Florida where old Florida fishing lakes, swamps and wildlife still abound. Fran works primarily in watercolour.

Fran is a self taught artist who began painting and sketching in 2005. She has exhibited her work in galleries and shows in Florida, Waterloo, Toronto and Muskoka.