Category: Artist Eric Sloane

“It was Sloane’s friendship with Wiley Post that introduced him to a new area of artistic exploration…Sloane wrote of flying with Post one day when the aviator told him that ‘Someday an artist will come along and just paint clouds and sky’.
-From Aware: A Retrospective of the life and work of Eric Sloane by Wil Mauch. Used by permission.

“The Winnie Mae”
Oil on Masonite

Learn more about this most talented and fascinating American artist at www.weatherhillfarm.com.
To learn more about the Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum and our mission to assist in the preservation and interpretation of the Eric Sloane Museum and its collection, see www.friendsoftheericsloanemuseum.org. While you’re there, please consider making a donation online to our new hands-on classroom project.

Eric Sloane – Deeley Gallery
Manchester Village, Vermont
October 1-19, 1971

Learn more about this most talented and fascinating American artist at www.weatherhillfarm.com.

To learn more about the Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum and our mission to assist in the preservation and interpretation of the Eric Sloane Museum and its collection, see www.friendsoftheericsloanemuseum.org. While you’re there, please consider making a donation online to our new hands-on classroom project.

Not much of this going on around here as of late….

Eric Sloane, N.A.
Sunlight and Shadow
Oil on Panel
23.50″ x 31.50″
c. 1950

Photo from Wil Mauch’s Symbols of American Spirit: 50 Years of the Eric Sloane Museum

Some admirers of the works of Eric Sloane are startled to discover that the artist painted more than a few ski scenes during the early 1950s.  Eric’s sister Dorothy explained to me that Eric received a large, “coffee table book” in full color of scenes of Switzerland some time in the late 1940s and was captivated by photographs of the Alps.  What followed, according to Dorothy, was a period in which Eric produced scenes similar to Sunlight and Shadow.  Some of the paintings were set in Europe, while others were set in New England or the Rocky Mountain region of the Western United States.

       It would seem as if Sloane’s fascination with painting ski scenes was short lived, probably not more than a few years at most. – Wil Mauch, Symbols of American Spirit: 50 Years of the Eric Sloane Museum.

“Coming Home” by Eric Sloane, N.A. Signed, titled and dated (1945), lower right. Courtesy Wil Mauch of Weather Hill Farm.

“October Colors”
19″ x 33″
Oil on Masonite

Notice Eric’s use of the word “cloudscape” in his quote above, a word the artist said that he coined. The treatment of the sky in general, and clouds in particular, is critical to ascertain authenticity of the artist’s works. I’ve often wondered who was the first to ascend into the air for the purpose of painting the clouds.
I know Eric was doing so as early as at least 1930. But I’ve seen enough early air show/contest posters from Europe in which the artwork was rendered by someone who had clearly been in a balloon or airplane to be able to create the effect of air, sky, and cloud so effectively from a pilot’s perspective.

Photo used by permission, from Wil Mauch’s Aware: A Retrospective of the Life and Work of Eric Sloane.

To learn more about the Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum and our mission to assist in the preservation and interpretation of the Eric Sloane Museum and its collection, see www.friendsoftheericsloanemuseum.org. While you’re there, please consider making a donation online to our new hands-on classroom project.

Eric Sloane, N.A.
Untitled
23″ x 35″
Oil on Masonite

While unfortunately not titled, we know that this scene depicts an early American “saltbox” house, so referenced because of the resemblance to, well, a saltbox. In 18th and 19th century America, the saltbox was present in nearly every kitchen. Usually made of wood and with a slanting lid to make adding and removing salt easier, the saltbox did indeed resemble the shape of the “saltbox” home. Incidentally, most 18th and early 19th century American homes faced south to take maximum advantage of the winter arc of the sun,
yielding more heat and light into the house. The rear – or north facing – side of the house was sloped so that the cold northern winds would blow over the house. Few if any windows were present on the north side of these early homes.

With thanks to Wil Mauch of Weather Hill Farm. Photo used by permission, from Wil Mauch’s Aware: A Retrospective of the Life and Work of Eric Sloane.
Learn more about this most talented and fascinating American artist at www.weatherhillfarm.com.

           

“Smoke Houses” by Eric Sloane, N.A..  This charmer is from Eric’s 1966 book “An Age of Barns”.  The book was a first for Eric Sloane in many ways, but the two most significant were that it was his first “coffee table” sized book, and it was arguably his first real tour de force in large, fully rendered pen and ink illustration.  As evident here, Eric could turn a seemingly mundane aspect of early American vernacular architecture (anything from outhouses to smoke houses!) into a fascinating, entertaining, educational, and charming drawing.  Interestingly, Eric almost always created illustrations to size, meaning that he had a good idea of how much space on a page he would have on a finished, published book, and worked his drawings to that size.  One of the aspects of illustrations I love from An Age of Barns is that they are all large, much larger than the finished space they occupy in the published book.  Whether Eric was ensuring that the published drawings retained a higher level of detail – or if the original idea was to print An Ag of Barns in a larger size (or both) – his pen and ink illustrations created for the book are magnificent.  Note also the incorporation of a lined and signed mat.

From Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum founder Wil Mauch – a charming example of an original pen and ink by artist Eric Sloane to remind us that winter is still hanging on!

Over the course of his career, Eric Sloane painted many murals.  Quite a few were in private homes, many others were in corporate settings.  These photographs were taken by Wil Mauch in 1999/2000 of a Sloane mural in the headquarters of the now defunct International Silver Company in Meriden, Connecticut.  

     Photos from Wil Mauch’s Aware: A Retrospective of the Life and Work of Eric Sloane. You can learn more about this most fascinating of American, as well as order the Aware biography with proceeds going to the Friends of the Eric Sloane Museum, by visiting www.weatherhillfarm.com.