Eric Michaels

   Considered the most distinctive feature of Eric Michaels' work is the international depth he brings to his oils, watercolors and pastels. His subjects are compiled from his painting trips to four continents and both hemispheres. The understanding of the various hues of lights sets the tone for his paintings in each of the locations in which he paints. Understanding the local light conditions enhances his artistic views and compliments the native people.

  

   Eric Michaels was born and raised in Illinois. While a young boy, he grasps an early appreciation for the arts including visual and music. He has become an accomplished classical guitar player. Michaels also spent a great deal of his time drawing images from his childhood and studying guitar with an old vaudeville banjo player. His college career was financed in part by teaching both art and guitar lessons as well as playing in various coffee houses. Post graduation with a B.F.A. in art, he traveled across North America playing guitar and practicing his art and drawing. For the next three years, he played clubs, coffeehouses and universities from Alaska to Mexico. This led to studying classical guitar at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 1983, on a music tour through the southwest, passed through Santa Fe and decided to stay, which rekindled his interest in visual arts.   

  The beauty of the desert southwest, including the Santa Fe art community thrilled Michaels, and within a year he decided to give up his music performances to concentrate on paintings. After doing a small bit of commercial illustration to help pave the economic road, he gleaned enough notable dealers to begin making a living in fine art.    Michaels still loves to travel. His art has taken him to exotic destinations in Africa, Europe, Central America and Indonesia. He also loves to paint the rich culture and landscapes of the region surrounding his home in Trinidad, Colorado.

  

  Michaels has exhibited at the Royal Watercolour Society in London, nine years in the Artists of America Show in Denver, and is a regular exhibitor in the Great American Artists Exhibition in Cincinnati and the "Quest for the West Exhibition" at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis. His paintings hang in private, corporate, museum and state collections; including the Albuquerque Museum of Fine Art, The Booth Western Art Museum, Phillips Petroleum, IBM, Honeywell-Sperry Inc., and the State Collection of the Governor's Gallery, Santa Fe, NM. Michaels is a signature member of the Oil Painters of America, National Watercolor Society and the Pastel Society of America.



Farm Near Mora, NM