Eric Merrell

What could be more bucolic, more artsy, more Seurat than coming across a painter in the Arroyo Seco, practically in the shadow of the Colorado Street Bridge?

John and I were walking with Boz when we saw Eric Merrell's umbrella. I just had to go find out what he was painting. But we'd caught him between paintings, and he was peering at a blank canvas. Thinking. Looking around. Checking out the light.

He was nice enough to let me take photos, but an artist has a process and I didn't want to bother him for long. We exchanged urls, as gentlefolk do in polite society.

Here's Eric's outstanding website. Here's Eric's thoughtful blog.

On the website, you'll see he's currently part of a show at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and he opens at the Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA on Valentine's Day (break a leg, Eric!). Right here in Pasadena we can get a look at his works from April 26th to May 17th at the California Art Club's 98th Annual Gold Medal Juried Exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art.

I think I'll just go to that.

Below, the painter contemplates his next masterwork.