Eric Edward Esper

Our Children of Angels, 1958 School House Fire, Disaster Painting, Original Oil

2013

The soft loose brush strokes of Ahzad Bogosian's landscape entitled "The Promise of Autumn" convey a vast serene sky. The setting sun has cast the lone tree in the foreground into s...

"Building Clouds, Quiet Pond" is a minimalist landscape painting depicting subtle shifts of color as the sun sets over a darkened landscape with a pond in the foreground. Deep golds...

This surrealistic seascape of a group of small rocky islands off the coast of a crystal blue sea is a place in the mind of the artist Pozas. As the titled suggests, this is a vacation for the mind when travel is not an option! The painting is framed in a simple wooden frame and measures 12h x 20w inches. "Pozas" René Monzón...

“Ash Wednesday of Ashes” March 4, 1908 At approximately 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4, 1908, a fire started in the basement near the furnace, under the front stairwell of the school, which blocked the front door. Panicked children were trapped by a crush of bodies in the doorway of the exit of the rear stairwell, trapping the rest of the students and teachers in the upper floors. The community rushed to the school for rescue efforts only to find an impenetrable wall of bodies at the doors. Unable to help, rescuers could do nothing for nearly four hours but watch in horror as some children jumped from the windows to escape, while others remained trapped in the inferno. Firefighters eventually arrived from 10 miles away in nearby Cleveland, but they were too late. 175 perished including two teachers and one rescue worker. Eric Edward Esper Collinwood School Fire, Ohio 1908 oil on canvas 22h x 28w in (29.5h x 34w in, framed) 55.88h x 71.12w cm EEE010 Eric Edward Esper After obtaining my BFA in Illustration from Northern Michigan University in 1996 I relocated to Chicago to pursue my artistic endeavors. Here, I began exclusively oil painting and have assembled a body of paintings chronicling scenes of Chicago done primarily in plein air. Capturing parts of the city’s landscape during its cultural evolution had been my way of conveying history as a painter. My fascination with landscapes and history has led me to create oil paintings of scenes that have affected us in dramatic ways. Recently I have begun painting aerial views of locations that have interesting historical significance, encapsulating true stories that are hard to imagine and harder to forget. My latest paintings capture these places and depict them with historically accurate attention to detail. Using various sources I recreate these scenes with as many photographs of every angle of the incident and research the stories, submersing myself in the event. My newest body of paintings depicts events with a more historically tragic significance, depicting scenes of the darkest hours in America’s Midwest history, where the landscape became the backdrop for tragedy and calamity. These events that irrevocably altered so many lives are important to remember, not only for the people lost and how it affected our culture, but also to remind us that disaster can occur at any time, anywhere. Eric Edward Esper EDUCATION 1995 BFA, Illustration, Northern Michigan University, Marquette, Michigan SELECT EXHIBITIONS 2013 Chicago Catastrophes, Conflagrations, and Calamities, Solo show, Linda Warren Projects, Chicago, Illinois 2012 Group show, Metropolitan Capital Bank, Chicago, Illinois 2012 Ten year anniversary show, Sulzen Fine Art Studio, Chicago, Illinois 2010 Group show, Concordia University, River forest, Illinois 2009 Holiday Show, Sulzen Fine Art Studio, Chicago, Illinois 2008 Somewhere, Elsewhere, Group show, Linda Warren Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2008 Scene in Chicago, Group show, Judy Saslow Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2007 Holiday Show, Sulzen Fine Art Studio, Chicago, Illinois 2007 Cityscapes, Solo Exhibition, Oculus Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2006 Solo exhibition, Meztli Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2005 Around the Coyote 2005, Biannual Art Festival, Chicago, Illinois 2004 Chicago Art Open 2004, Chicago Artists' Coalition annual exhibit. Chicago, Illinois 2004 Chicago Images, Group show, Frederick Baker Inc. Chicago, Illinois 2004 Around the Coyote Winter Festival, Curator's Choice Show, Biannual art festival, Chicago, Illinois 2003 Landscape Unlimited, Group show, Fine Arts Building Gallery, Chicago, Illinois 2002 Chicago Art Open 2002, Chicago Artists' Coalition annual exhibit, Chicago, Illinois 1998 Shoe Show, Group show, Ariana Gallery, Royal Oak, Michigan 1998 Art and Design Alumni Exhibit, Lee Hall...

Last Voyage of the Lady Elgin On Saturday, September 8, 1860 at 2:30 a.m., the sidewheel steamship was full of Milwaukee’s Union Guard and civilians returni...

The Firestorm of Peshtigo October 8 1871, the same night of the Great Fire of Chicago, and The Michigan forest fires. A cold front moved in from the west fanning land clearance fires...

60"x144" large scale painting, oil on canvas, created on two joined canvases. The deep blue palette gives a sense of underwater space in this grand depiction of coral reefs. Artist, Karen Marston presents this endangered species in a grand scale to show its beauty and importance to our environment. Karen Marston is a painter living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been seen in a number of solo exhibitions in New York City. In addition to her 2018 show Harbingers, at the Owen James Gallery in Soho, other recent solos include: 2017’s To Embrace the Whole Sky with the Mind, at Station Independent Projects on the Lower East Side, Demeter’s Wrath in 2016 at the Owen James Gallery and Storm Watch...

William Turner Gallery is proud to present a small solo exhibition of paintings by artist Lawrence Gipe called “Recent Pictures,” which draws fr...

William Turner Gallery is proud to present a small solo exhibition of paintings by artist Lawrence Gipe called “Recent Pictures,” which draws fr...

William Turner Gallery is proud to present a small solo exhibition of paintings by artist Lawrence Gipe called “Recent Pictures,” which draws fr...

William Turner Gallery is proud to present a small solo exhibition of paintings by artist Lawrence Gipe called “Recent Pictures,” which draws fr...

William Turner Gallery is proud to present a small solo exhibition of paintings by artist Lawrence Gipe called “Recent Pictures,” which draws fr...