Erica Berent
Artist Bio
Erica Berent is a San Diego based artist, oil painter. She received her education in New York City at Columbia University where she earned a Bachelors of Fine Art, as well as at the Fashion Institute of Technology where she earned an Associates Degree, cum laude in Textile Design. She has worked in New York City, San Francisco, Las Vegas and San Diego. Erica also holds a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude from California Western School of Law in San Diego, where she is a member of the State Bar. Erica has shown her paintings in galleries in New York City, NY, Key West, FL, Las Vegas, NV, Sedona, AZ and most recently at the Gotthelf Art Gallery in La Jolla, CA, and the Las Laguna, and Virga Galleries in Laguna Beach, CA.
Erica must paint, the same way she must breathe. Sometimes she imagines the complete painting as a picture in her mind first. Sometimes she walks into the studio, just turns on music or guided meditations, and like a stretching exercise, begins to draw with either charcoal or a paintbrush on the canvas, watching for shapes and images as they develop. Erica then fills in the shapes with colors, textures and patterns. Other times she mixes color to music, and splashes that color onto the canvas to her heart’s delight, turning the canvas every which way watching the colors drip and interact with each other.
Erica enjoys painting in oils because it provides her a sensuous experience and gives her paintings a certain glow. She uses lush saturated jewel tone color, juxtaposing certain colors to create a lively vibration. She likes to play with foreground and background and space. Her spiritual side often adds symbols and charms to her paintings, intentionally imbuing them with love, healing and joy to uplift and enlighten the soul. Sometimes she just paints because it is fun.