Eric Schweitzer

About the Artist

b. 1974 Nova Scotia, Canada Eric is an abstract "automatist" artist who works in a loose abstract gestural style throughout all his media, including stone. His paintings and other 2-D works are largely made without any plan other than to keep a constant reverence for composition and open mind. Often his compositions remain non-objective, but spontaneously works will evolve to become abstract figurative forms using a technique of layering paint. While enamel "house" paint is a medium of choice due to its fluidity, he also works with traditional oils, acrylics and mixed media. "Nothing is off limits." He attributes his gestural painting style to the early impact of street graffiti back when it was more popular in the '80s and its stark contrast to his own New England countryside upbringing. Schweitzer's work is a combination of a controlled and uncontrolled process. He begins each work using various automatist techniques and then builds upon these discoveries through a careful selection process of adding and subtracting color and other compositional elements.  Schweitzer's work is often whimsical and fluid with varying degrees of figurative forms. These forms are actually used as tools for manipulating space; one of his primary concerns in the development of a composition. And if done correctly, one can draw out important elements such as negative space and "resting places" where the "eye" (mind) can go to and allow the viewer to reside- sometimes in a compositional scene of what would be otherwise at quick glance, a very busy and complex work.  Eric is a proud Veteran of the U.S. Navy having served as an Aviation Electronics Technician. Eric works for a Standards Developing Organization responsible for facilitating and setting minimum hygienic design requirements for the food processing equipment industry.

Artist's Statement

"I paint to capture what I feel at that moment" and work to manipulate this image further using the principles of composition and spontaneity. "I firmly believe that in the act of creating, especially art - one finds oneself closest to a higher power. I am driven to share this spiritual feeling throughout my work, present new ideas and compositions that reveal an immediacy and mood that is continuously dynamic and grows with the viewer." "I engage my work, as I wake to each day - clean-slate, fresh, and with an underlying altruistic purpose."