“I paint the piece that tells the story.“

Biography

Eric Manning was born in Poughkeepsie, New York and lived in the Hudson Valley for twenty-three years. He then moved to the heart of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado to pursue his interests in mountain sports and later pursue a bachelor’s degree. After living and working in the Rockies for a season, he attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins and received his degree in Applied Human Science.

During the course of his study, he began to noticed the art being created around him by his fellow students. This inspired him to sketch and paint different concepts in his anatomy class and then in other classes as well. After visualizing and sketching the concepts he was learning, he noticed how profoundly he would remember and enjoy the information being taught by his professors. Creative sketching continued to deeply move Eric and sent him out in a search for his interests and dreams in the world of art and conceptualization.

Later, he landed in Kansas City and got a studio at the Arts Incubator (in the Crossroads District), which, unfortunately, is not longer in existence. But he is still expressing his concepts and experiences of all kinds in the medium of oil painting. After creating a large body of work, he realized there was a story behind all of his pieces and so started writing that story.

Finally, he published his first book, “The Secret That Kills / Spirit That Saves,” in February of 2023. In 2024, he published a second book, “2021 A.D.” Currently, he is working on a third book, “Tales From the Crib” which should be published in the summer of 2024.

Artistic Statement

Over the past two decades, realize I have created my own style of painting which I describe as “animated-organic.” The animated comes from my desire to express the human spirit from the inside out. The organic comes from observing the many different patterns contrasting colors which I see in nature. For example the movement of thunder clouds rolling in before a storm strikes and the patterns of shadows they create in the trees around me. To me, the most brilliant and vibrant colors come organically out of nature, and that is when I get the most inspiration to express them with oil paints on canvas.