Eric considers himself an Expressionist painter. Having resided in Friedrichshain, Berlin early in his career in the late 1990s, he drew inspiration from the tumultuous social and physical metamorphosis occurring in that city, from the ample antiquity collections at the Pergamon Museum, and from bold use of strokes, color, and form evoked by the Expressionist collections found at the Brücke-Museum including painters such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, and Emil Nolde.
Subsequently invited to Paris and coming under the tutelage of the Cuban Surrealist, Roberto Garcia York, Eric further evolved his craft while residing sur la Butte de Montmartre. Like many painters before him, Eric took full advantage of frequenting the rich collections at the Louvre and musée d’Orsay.
An avid traveler, Eric has lived in Berlin, Paris, Lisbon, Prague, Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C. By interpreting his ambient and personal experiences, Eric strives to create a mélange between those extraordinary singular encounters both between locals and localities to form a unique zeitgeist apparition.
The majority of Eric’s hundreds of paintings and sketches are either landscapes or figurative. The landscapes target those countries and regions Eric has come to know intimately through travel including but not limited to: France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Pennsylvania, and New York City. The figurative selection includes portraits, homages to baroque and neoclassical, and café scene painting. The clair-obscur light and dark effects have been influenced by Caravaggio and Rubens with particular emphasis on the cadmium red flesh reflection where shadows are at their darkest.
Most of the works have been rendered in the Expressionist style and achieved by the alla prima technique. Influenced by artists moving beyond Impressionism during la Belle Époque Cezanne, Munch, and Van Gogh, ultimately gave way to a burgeoning Expressionism movement in Berlin, Dresden, and Munich that attempted to both relay powerful emotion while exploring artistic origins and primitivism.
Eric’s painting and pastels attempt to convey strong sentiments through alla prima or au premier coup meaning at the first try or touch. Painting rapidly, many of Eric’s paintings are completed before the bottom layer of oil paint has dried. Rather than mixing colors on the palette, oil paint is applied directly and generously to the canvas in broad, rich, ample strokes. Many of these strokes or touches can be observed in the original pure stark color. The juxtaposition of multiple strokes engenders the desired contrast.
Eric has exhibited his paintings in Washington D.C., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Berlin, Paris, and Lisbon.
In addition to his art, Eric is a lover of languages and has taught, interpreted, and translated many European languages. Eric continues to emulate Sir Richard Burton’s example, by joyfull undertaking the challenge of learning new tongues with the aim of directly exploring distinct cultures and participating in the exchange of ideas.
Eric resides in Philadelphia with his wife and twin sons.