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Erick Ingraham
David Erick Ingraham (b. Dec.23, 1950 Philadelphia) has worked exclusively
in the field of art since receiving a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art Painting
in 1972 from Kutztown U. (Pennsylvania). His admiration for great
illustrators like Howard Pyle, N.C. Wyeth and Edmund Dulac lead him to the
publication field. While aiming to illustrate for children's books, he
enjoyed creating editorial and demonstrative illustration in books and
magazines for many years. (See Bibliography) Over the past twenty years,
his paintings in oil and watercolor have been collected by private
individuals. In 2004, after utilizing his skill in a wide variety of
artistic pursuits for thirty years, Ingraham found a renewed energy
for a concentration on oil painting. Since 2005, he has been evolving
out of using a muted tonalism into a new vibrant glazing technique.
He loves the luminous quality of Maxfield Parrish, the drama and
design sense of Gustav Klimt and the esprit brush strokes of John Singer Sargent.
In '06 and '07, his large oil landscapes captured this beautifully, but this year,
he's decided to return to his life-long love of the female form. |
Ingraham's recent paintings showcase his years of accumulated skill
in drawing and brushwork beginning with the underpainting. Even after the
application of the many layers of overpainting that follow, his goal is
to retain a look of effortlessness, a delicate balance between freedom and
skill.
"A large part of what defines my psyche is Contrast. My strong Earth
connection keeps me grounded as a technically oriented artist.
My love of Contrast has become evident as I am drawn toward
the excitement and elusiveness of emotion. In my recent work,
I can see separate paths in my life converging. My love of
natural phenomena and nature's textures that came forward
in my landscape work has now converged with my love of
human form and emotions. My internal dialog about
technique likes to see a struggle between clarity
and ambiguity - the contrast between bold design
and painting with the look of effortlessness -
The Delineated fused with The Ethereal. My oil
paintings combine my love of interesting composition,
expressiveness of drawing, and translucent color.
They are all captured with a glazing technique
painted on a "textured" yet very smooth gessoed surface. "