Eric N. Fausnacht, Paintings and Photography at Twenty-Two Gallery, White Rooster on Blue Floral, 30″ x 24″, acrylic on fabric, $1200.
Recent Paintings and Mixed Media by artist Eric N. Fausnacht.
“My portraits fuse the boundaries between a traditional animal painting and a contemporary modern portrait. My paintings take a subject with historical references and fuse color, pattern, and textile design with a larger than life size figure to depict strength and beauty. The figure takes up most of the canvas and is then fused with a modern pattern or rococo ornamentation. This takes a simple portrait and emphasizes and compliments the textural aspects throughout the subject’s body. For this season’s paintings and photo-collages I’ve introduced painting directly on printed fabric.” – Twenty-Two Gallery
Eric N. Fausnacht, Paintings and Photography at Twenty-Two Gallery, acrylic and gold leaf
Eric N. Fausnacht paints domestic fowl, a popular cultural icon that has existed forever. I asked Eric about the concept painting the elaborately feathered birds on the wildly patterned backgrounds.
“I love the pattern, it has a modern take on them. Before my backgrounds had a very muddied kind of old world look and I wanted to flip it completely and do this really contemporary, bright, multi-layered. To me it was surprise how well it popped, the pattern on pattern on pattern. And the new works I’m doing have even more pattern. Finding them and then convincing myself it’s the right look can be kind of hard, but then I think. ‘Why not?’ Just give it a try.”
Do you plan this all out before you commit this to canvas?
“Of course not! I just jump in, that’s my way of doing it, no sketches, no forethought, just jump in and try it. If it doesn’t work, I’ll move onto something else. I’m always trying something new all the time. I think they’re great fun, I’ve gotten a lot of great responses. I’m having a good time with it.
I asked Eric if he still lives in Bucks County?
“Yes. I still have the little farm with the chickens, they’re doing very well.”
Do the chickens model for you?
“Absolutely! All the time. We have one rooster that’s really mean right now but he’s very handsome. We just got a new turkey and he’s great, maybe you’ll see a turkey soon. We have little chicks, they’re awesome. They’re so much fun. I’ve been working on the garden, the whole thing. Just living the life.”
Is your studio at the farm?
“Yes, it is and now that it’s warmer I can paint more, now that the paints have thawed. It was really tough, it was a tough Winter. I moved everything into the guest room and basically worked on the kitchen counter. That’s where the space was, now, it’s nice to be back outside. And we have a new warehouse for all the pillow stuff that I do.”
Eric N. Fausnacht, Paintings and Photography at Twenty-Two Gallery, Russian Orlaf Rooster, on black and white fabric; four panels, 20″ x 16″, acrylic on fabric, $2200
“We do hand silk screened pillows. I work with a friend of mine, Chris, he’s an artist who’s had a silk screen business for about twenty years. Of course, I’ve been doing all the farm animals and he brought me in on a show called Push Pull Print. He brought in twenty or so artists who work in silk screen and over time we developed this new pillow line. Now it’s in four hundred stores across the country, we’re in almost every state, Taiwan, Canada, all over. We’re called Eric and Christopher www.ericandchristopher.com” – Eric N. Fausnacht
Twenty-Two Gallery 236 S. 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103, 215.772.1911
HOURS: Wed. thru Sun. 12 Noon to 6 PM or by appointment
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Written and photographed by DoN Brewer except where noted.
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