Eric Wuest
I paint on primed canvas stretched on a wall in my studio. I start by making marks in charcoal and then add large areas of color. Artist Paul Klee said a line is a dot that went for a walk. When I paint I encourage my dots and lines to skip and run! I like the idea of making an image that looks like one thing far away and looks like something different when seen close up. To me this process seems to represent the lives we live more closely than simply depicting a scene. We think we understand a situation or person when we see them from a distance, but when we get closer we discover something entirely different than we expected.
An ongoing project I’ve been bringing to groups is based on the idea of connections between us that we are not aware of. After reading a book called Art and Physics by Leonard Shlain I started asking groups to do an exercise with me. I started with my family, moved to art classes and most recently taught this exercise to the Gallery Guides at Salem Art Association. I use it when I get stuck for an image to work on. I would like to share this exercise with your group and some of the results that have come out of it.
About the Artist
Eric Wuest has been an exhibiting artist for forty years. He has participated in the Artists in Residence program through the Salem Art Association and taught painting, drawing and figure studies in their adult classes. His paintings and drawings were shown in the Governor’s Office at the Oregon State Capitol Building in June 2004. Although his focus remains on drawing and painting, he recently began working on print-making with the addition of an intaglio press to his studio. Eric’s work appears in Art for Everyone, a textbook published by Chemeketa Community College. He has illustrated two books by Eugene author Alan Contreras, and he is a regular contributor to shows throughout the Willamette Valley.
An Art Evolution
Meeting participants really enjoyed Eric Wuest’s presentation during our September Monthly Meeting via Zoom. He showed us an exercise he does using masking tape on a blank sheet to get started on a drawing. It was great fun and thought provoking to see his unusual approach.
After he demonstrated his starter drawing technique, we collectively saw this, but individually saw things in it.
Eric: “After many sessions of clearing my mind and letting my eye wander the surface and patterns, I found this image and developed it so others could see what I saw. I hope you enjoy the results!”
