Eric Armusik | Contemporary Figurative Artist and Fine Realism Painter

Born in 1973, Eric Armusik grew up in the northeastern coal region of Pennsylvania. Once one of the largest coal mining operations in the county, his hometown was a landscape riddled with the depressions of post-industry. In contrast to the blight was a diverse ethnic community strong in faith. What the community lacked in public art and museums it made up for it with churches on each city block. It was there that Eric had his first experiences with art, staring at the walls and ceilings at church on Sunday. The traditions and academic realism of Catholic art work made a permanent impression that continues to influence his work today.

From an early age it was evident that Eric had artistic talents and at the age of 10 he won an art competition "Why I love living in the Wyoming Valley" that included students from all of the surrounding schools and his drawing of the Swetland Homestead was exhibited in the Franklin First Federal Building in downtown Wilkes Barre. His talents continued to win him numerous competitions and in 1990 he was awarded for his Contribution to the Arts by Wilkes University where he attended their Upward Bound program. In 1991, Eric attended Pennsylvania State University, where he earned a B. F. A. in painting, with and a minor in an art history focusing on Baroque art. In 1995 he received the Margaret Giffen Shoenfelder Memorial Scholarship for the Arts and finished his art history minor abroad for a semester in Todi, Italy. During his art classes there he drew from original paintings, architecture and sculptures by the old masters such as Michaelangelo, Bernini, Caravaggio, Rubens and Donatello. The rare opportunity to study masterworks by Baroque painters Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi had a profound effect on the quality of his work and focused the inspiration he experienced as a child. After years of learning the techniques of the old masters Eric honed his skills at the Philadelphia studio of renowned international realism artist and portrait painter Nelson Shanks, Studio Incamminati.

Understanding the difficulty aspiring artists have had in finding competent training in classical drawing and painting he later founded the Studio of Eric Armusik, a small atelier school of drawing and painting. The workshop program is based on the teaching methods of the 19th-century French ateliers and the the old masters. Students draw and paint entirely from life without the use of photograpy and learn to create dramatic works of art.

Eric's work has been featured in such galleries and museums as the Salmagundi Art Club, New York; Allentown Art Museum; Philip and Muriel Berman Art Museum, Ursinus College; Monsoon Galleries; Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts; State Museum of Pennsylvania; and Reading Public Museum. In 2003, Eric was selected to represent the United States in Florence, Italy at the Biennale Internazionale Dell Arte Contemporanea where he exhibited several of his paintings. His paintings are in the permanent collections of The Trenton City Museum, Lehigh Valley Hospital and several private collections. His artwork has been prominently featured in publications like American Artist Magazine, American Art Collector, Victorian Homes, Old House Journal, ArtMATTERS, Morning Call, Reading Eagle and William and Mary Review.