BIOGRAPHY:

Eric Harley Schweitzer (b. 1974, Halifax, NS) spent the majority of his childhood roaming the forests and hills of Fairfield County, Connecticut. Music and the arts were always an important part of his childhood. As a child, Eric studied bass guitar, clarinet, piano, and trumpet. He learned he could draw at a young age and started honing his skills in his early teenage years at open figure drawing classes.

Though he prefers to learn through osmosis and self-observation, Eric has studied art at Montgomery College School of Art & Design in Silver Spring,  MD, Glen Echo Park, Glen Echo, MD, Wooster Community Art Center in Danbury, CT and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He was an invited guest artist and assistant sculptor for notable local artists.

Eric served in the U.S. Navy as an Aviation Electronics Technician troubleshooting and repairing "black box" equipment and then later earned his B.A. in Communication Research from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Eric considers himself an automatist artist who works in a loose, abstract, gestural manner and mainly begins his work without preconception. He works in a wide variety of media and attributes his gestural painting style to impact NYC street graffiti had on him in contrast to his own New England countryside upbringing.

Eric has shown his work in a wide variety of group show settings and several solo shows. His work has garnered attention in several traveling shows and is held in many private collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.

I paint to capture what I feel at that moment and work to manipulate this image further using the principles of composition and spontaneity. I firmly believe that in the act of creating, especially art - one finds oneself closest to a higher power. I am driven to share this spiritual feeling throughout my work, present new ideas and compositions that reveal an immediacy and mood that is continuously dynamic and grows with the viewer. I engage my work, as I wake to each day - clean-slate, fresh, and with an underlying altruistic purpose.

"Charles Krause/ The Newtown Project: A Call To Arms!," Brenda Hayes, This Light Sounds For Social Change Radio CPR, 3/2013, Time Stamp: 0:38:38 podcast
 

"Eric Harley Schweitzer: Artist profile,” Stephen Mack, Examiner, 8/15/2011

“Working With The Abstract: Chevy Chase Artist Lets Colors Do The Talking, Jordan Edwards, Gazette, 12/27/2010 

“Appetite for Abstraction at the Good News Café,” Ryan Wiltzius, The Town Vibe, 6/11/2013  
“Artists contribute to 'Newtown Project: A Call to Arms!'," Mark Jenkins, The Washington Post, 1/25/2013

Image: “The Sorcerer,” Events in Connecticut, The New York Times, 8/18/2012

Image: “The Sorcerer,” Calendar of Events, The Housatonic Times, 8/11/2012

“Eric Harley Schweitzer: Paintings & Works On Paper," Waverly Street Gallery, 1/04/2011

“Former Naval Technician Turns to Art,” Kate Oczypok, Bethesda Patch, 1/26/2011

“Eric Harley Schweitzer: Paintings & Works On Paper,” Natalie Neumann, Chevy Chase Patch, 1/21/2011

“Art in Unexpected Places,” Jeremy B. White, Roll Call, 3/1/2010  

“Working With The Abstract: Chevy Chase Artist Lets Colors Do The Talking," Jordan Edwards, Gazette, 12/27/2010

"Eric Harley Schweitzer: Working Process," A Walk Into Abstracts, Vol.4, Sue St. John, 4/2012 

Cover Art for "Tap Dancing Through Black Holes," Robert Whitehill-Bashan, 4/2014