Very soon our studio will host a great Canadian artist for a 10 days drawing workshop: Eric Drummond.
International artist, Eric’s work has been awarded and featured by The Art Renewal Center, The MEAM Museum of Barcelona, and The Florence Academy of Art and has exhibited in Italy, Spain, The United States and Canada.
So, sit back and let’s read his interview!
Eric, can you describe yourself with three adjectives?
Passionate. Pensive. Stubborn haha.
How was your passion born?
When I was young, I was always drawing whatever comicbook character or cartoon character I would see on TV. It was quite consistently figurative subjects, I also would draw religious scenes during Christmas or Easter time. My grandparents from Italy quickly noticed this in me and decided to facilitate it by showing me books and photos of the work by great Italian Renaissance artists of the past.
Specifically, Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci were the first major influences to me, and from there this curiosity to create work in line with what they did grew exponentially. I started look at the Mannerists, the Baroque era, and even going further back before the Renaissance towards the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians. I’ll never forget the night my Grandfather gave me that book on Michelangelo; it opened up an entire world to me. It was the catalyst for everything that followed in my artistic life.
Do you prefer to paint or draw more?
Can I say both? Or at least say for me you can’t have one without the other? I’ve been drawing since I was a child, so the familiarity and sense of control is something I really love about drawing. Funny enough I hated painting when I was younger, and I only really learned to Oil paint a few years ago at school. However, the varieties and range of what you can do with paint is something I really love.
Drawing, while its own discipline, was a prelude to painting for me. Everything I owe to what I make in paint is to my practice and understanding of drawing.
My working habits see me bounce between drawing projects and painting projects almost all the time. I think it helps refresh the way I see things, variety in the projects and in the mediums you use help your mentality towards the craft. To me, if I keep drawing then my painting will only improve.
How would you define your style?
I don’t like to think I have a style. It’s not a priority to me. I’d rather think of the harmony between subject, artist and the medium. The embracing of these three elements are what produce the innate visual language of an artist. While artists are conscious of the education they receive, their hand is still their own. The DNA of the work is attributed to the artist and their specific feelings, observations and experiences in life.
To me, the more an artist obsesses over a style, the less honest and original the work could become. You place yourself into a box. If I painted and only considered what style it needs to look like, I neglect the feelings I may have in the moment of observing. I neglect being in the moment of experiencing the subject in the space we both occupy, my own personality towards the act of painting and translating it freely.
What is making art for you today?
Making art, or my work is intrinsic to who I am as a person. I am not Eric if I do not paint, if I do not draw, if I do not try to create in any capacity. This is what makes Art such a vulnerable thing, it is tied to the artist at all times, even beyond the artists own life. What making art is for me today, was the same for me when I was a child, and will be the same for me until I am no longer around. The effort and diligence I put into my work is in complete service to who I am and hope to be as a person. In the end the work remains, and I hope that whatever I am remains with it.
Is there a message behind your works?
There are a variety of feelings and thoughts behind my works. Some are born of things I see around me in the world, others are inspired from things that may have happened to me. Sometimes I see a person’s portrait that I simply would love to paint. If I’m drawn to something, why not translate it with the form of expression I love best? As for an overarching theme, no I don’t have works that connect to one another, not yet at least. They all exist within themselves and the thoughts, observations and feelings I had at the time.
Can you tell us about a work which you are particularly attached?
Usually I look back at my work with a lot of scrutiny. I try to see what I did right, what I didn’t do right in my mind. But I would say there is one that I made that I am attached to. “Puzzle”, the portrait of my brother Daniel is a work that I don’t think I would ever part with. I can’t really describe why but I feel I did something more with that work. It speaks to me, my memories and my understanding of my brother in a profound way.
Future plans?
For my own work? Bigger canvases, with multiple figure paintings (one of which I’m in the process of making). I’ve started to really go back within my family heritage and to the initial works I was really moved by the Renaissance Artists I was introduced to. For myself? I would love to teach. Passing on this lineage of work is a chapter that every artist has in their life at some point, I think. I think teaching, giving back, is one of the most fulfilling feelings as well. It’s a beautiful way to share yourself beyond your work, and help develop your own work too. Students are also great teachers.
For those who still don’t know, the workshop lasts 10 days and will take place on Monday April 19th, to April to 30th 2021 in the morning from 10 am to 1 pm and in the afternoon from 2 pm to 5 pm where all levels are welcome, and give you the opportunity to acquire the classical academic method of drawing used by the great old Masters to create with the pencil/charcoal a whole human figure and a portrait.
We are waiting for you!
For all the information please write to info@gekoartstudio.com
