"In my work I strive to create a harmonic, balanced parallel to nature, and a sound composition is my focus from the very first mark. From beginning to end, this priority is maintained with intentional, considered variety in my employment of the elements of design. Among those elements, color is my first consideration. Resolve the color on a balanced foundation and the canvas is resolved. Any further work is preference.
In the beginning stage I abstract the colors into spots, designating those areas based on similar tone and value. This gives a chair leg as much compositional importance as a face. All that follows—turning form, details, contrasts, etc—is choice. To make those choices, I give consideration to the character and importance of each object; however, as I work in those initial compositional 'spots', I constantly consider the whole. Since harmony and balance are my goal, I never attend impartially to any detail. Don't break up those initial color spots by adding too much information. Composition always has precedence over character.
The next consideration, intuitively, is the interaction of the edges of those spots. Attending to the way these edges interact transforms them in your mind into planes, giving understanding of their orientation in space. Since all light is reflected color, this is imperative. All colors are relative to their surroundings, because each plane is directed towards a different color source. This understanding gives your colors effective and varied temperature, intensity, and harmony. So, I attend to the edges of planes. This resolves the colors, turns the forms, creates depth and perspective, and affirms hierarchy of the whole. The majority of my paintings are nothing but a record of these efforts, failed or achieved. Granted, at times they are more than that.
This personal process is born out of my greatest struggle as an artist: to overcome my inability to achieve on the canvas my ideas, concepts, and theories. Through working 'off the canvas'—that is to say, behind the scenes sketching, studying, considering, and practicing—I've learned to embrace instead of fear the transformative potential of each mark I make. I'm no longer afraid of ruining a painting by working on it, and I have faith that I can resolve all areas of the painting by working 'off the canvas.' My struggle now is working in a disciplined, focused way; stepping back to look, consider, and contemplate as much if not more than actually applying paint. Giving myself time to reflect on my own intentions; to work and re-work on each area of the canvas which is unresolved (or what Cézanne called 'unrealized') so my work is honest and true; and to exercise, evaluate, and theorize on my own personal process of painting for the sake of my next canvas."
—Eric
"Nature consists of a series of shapes that melt into one another. Strictly speaking, there's no such thing as drawing! . . . Line is the means by which man accounts for the effect of light on objects, but in nature there are no lines—in nature everything is continuous and whole [...] Shadow is a color as light is, but less bright, light and shadow are nothing more than a rapport between two tones. Drawing and color are not separate at all, insofar as you paint, you draw. The more the color harmonizes, the more exact the drawing becomes. When the color is at its richest, the form attains its fullness."
—Cézanne
"Will I reach the goal which I've sought so hard and pursued for so long? I hope so, but while it is unattained, a state of disquiet remains, which can only disperse once I've reached the harbor, that is to say when I've realized [achieved] something that develops better than in the past, and thus becomes proof of theories which, of themselves, are always easy; it is only demonstrating proof of what one thinks that presents obstacles. So I continue my studies..."
—Cézanne
