As 2024 is coming to a close, I want to say Happy New Year to everyone! 2024 was a very exciting year as I visited many beautiful places and made a lot of new friends. I traveled to Bermuda and fell in love with the colors as I painted there. I graduated from the Florence Academy of Art and spent a magical summer in Italy--seeing Rome, Venice, and Pisa while living in Florence. When I got back from Italy, I traveled to Michigan to appear as a guest on one of my favorite shows: J Schwanke's Life in Bloom. In the fall, I took a course in Japanese calligraphy and I even got published in a Japanese newspaper!
I have a lot of projects for 2025, which I am very excited about. I will be traveling during the spring and fall to teach international plein air WORKSHOPS in Ireland, France, Italy and Spain. And I am busy developing my own instructional painting and travel program titled: Eric En Plein Air™ which will be on American Public Television (APT). I always dreamed about traveling, teaching and doing what I love and I'm so thankful to my loved ones, family and friends for all of the support. I'm looking forward to seeing where life takes me next!
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I am very excited to announce that I'm currently developing a series called Eric En Plein Air - an instructional painting and travel program for American Public Television (APT). I can't wait to share more as this develops!
I was very surprised and excited when my calligraphy teacher, Ms. Denri Takai, texted me to check out Shukan New York Seikatsu (a free weekly newspaper). I went over to Jmart in Ridgewood to pick up a copy and turned to page 14 to find my own calligraphy!
It's part of a calligraphy contest, but I'm not sure about what it says since I cannot read Japanese; my sensei is currently in Japan so I will ask her about translating it when she returns. I showed the owner at Jmart and she was very impressed and surprised that I did that. I told her that I'm a painter, but this is my first time studying shodo. Jmart has great food, snacks, sushi and other Japanese items so if you're around northern NJ, check them out! This paper is available online also: https://nyseikatsu.com/editions/988/988.pdf Tonight was my last lesson of shodo (Japanese calligraphy) and my final project was a kanji postcard. I chose the kanji: 園 which means "Garden".
I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to study this traditional art form with a true master, Ms. Denri Takai. It's so important to keep these practices alive and to study them directly. For me, I loved learning about how to use the brush by watching Denri. As a teacher myself, I try my best to put it into works, but I've found that a lot of painting is beyond words. Taking a class in person allowed me to watch Denri and for her to guide my hand as I practiced. This artform is very deep (philosophically and technically) and I have a whole new appreciation for the craft of it. I wonder if it's really possible to make a "perfect" stroke with the brush? Maybe, but I still believe that perfection is an illusion. Also, to be a student again was like a breath of fresh air. It actually felt great to be a frustrated beginner! And I feel like this way of painting will have an impact on my own work, especially my watercolors. The power and directness of a single brushstroke will resonate in any form of painting. I hope to motivate everyone out there to try something new and to take a class to support teachers. Not just art, but language, writing, sports--It could be anything! Personally, I would love to take a pottery wheel course sometime in the near future also... Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there! |
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