Eric Holmes was born in 1946 and lives in an adult residence for the mentally ill. He attended college earlier in his life but is without art experience. His room is filled with books and magazines. He was an honors student at the University of Pennsylvania until his illness took over. Eric started painting in 1970 while in a Philadelphia mental hospital. He has stories for each of the paintings he does. His subject matter is wide-ranging and includes "eerily isolated heads", with names of old lovers or friends, lyrical flowers, and tortured abstractions to semi-humorous versions of the masters ... Eric's Picasso or Eric's Matisse. His large painted boards are often of women and his palette varies from bright primary colors to somber dark ones. In addition to his artworks, Eric keeps journal-notebooks filled with strong poetry. His work is in the permanent collection of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore. It is his painting that provides the name for and graces the wall of the museum restaurant "Joy America". Also his art was included in the exhibition, "The Passionate Eye: Florida Self-Taught Art", in 1994.
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Beggar 24 x 30 framed paint on canvas $325 |
