Artist Erica Driver Illustrates Details - Inside Art with Michael Rose

Artist Erica Driver Illustrates Details - Inside Art with Michael Rose

 

For artist Erica Driver, there is glory in specificity. In modestly scaled works on panels, she leverages the vibrant colors of acrylic paint markers to fastidiously capture interiors and environments. Through March 9, Driver’s artworks are on view in a solo exhibition titled Working Spaces at the Sarah Langley Gallery at Hammetts Hotel in Newport. The impressive show was organized by gallerist Jessica Hagen and offers an opportunity to get up close and personal with Driver’s finely drawn images.

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Driver makes her paintings from life, while sitting in a low camp chair. She uses photographs to frame up and explore composition, then dives into rendering while on site in the space she is documenting. Her current series focuses on venues where people are at work. Whether an auto body shop, a studio, an office, or a kitchen, Driver explores surfaces and textures of places where things get done.

 

 

Based in Little Compton, Driver has been making art for as long as she can remember. She earned her undergraduate degree with honors from Harvard and has had a long and varied professional career, while also making art and maintaining an active practice. She has shown locally at venues like the South County Art Association, Dartmouth Cultural Center, and the Newport Art Museum. In 2024, she was featured in a group exhibition at the historic National Arts Club on Gramercy Park in New York. In addition to South County Art Association, the artist is also a member of South Coast Artists and Newport Artist Collective as well as a Signature Member of the National Association of Women Artists.

 

Driver crafts her work in an unexpected way. Though they look like traditional acrylic paintings rendered with pigment out of a tube, they are actually constructed using acrylic paint markers. Typically used on paper by illustrators, these markers give Driver’s work a unique directness and enable her to render interesting effects. Each painting takes over twenty hours.

 

 

Asked about her enthusiasm for paint markers, the artist says, “I love this medium because I can use it to create vivid, detailed pictures. The paint dries very quickly so I can go over and over it until I get it right — perfect for working on site and en plein air. I am always experimenting with new ways to use layers,  dots, and swirls to get the effects I am looking for.”

 

All of the paintings in Driver’s solo show are twelve by twelve inches. This is a relatively modest scale and when they are hung in a row in the long gallery space they result in a staccato visual rhythm that encourages visitors to bounce back and forth between them to observe their respective qualities. The square format is both a challenge and support to the artist, who is able to utilize this standard to focus her compositions.

 

 

Explaining her process, Driver says, “I started using 12-inch square wood panels when I created works for the Newport Art Museum Wet Paint auction last summer. The size and surface are perfect for use with acrylic paint markers. I want the viewer to initially be attracted to a painting because of colors, shapes, and recognizable objects, and then to feel compelled to come close to explore the detail and begin absorbing the story in the picture.”

 

Driver is particularly good at illustrating the botanical elements of her scenes. She returns to greenhouses in several pieces and the resulting images draw the eye back again and again. Each time a new leaf, flower, or vine unveils itself.

 

Of the showcase, gallerist Jessica Hagen says, “Erica Driver is brand new to my gallery’s roster and the Sarah Langley Gallery at Hammetts Hotel is a wonderful venue to debut an artist’s work because the space really lends itself to showcasing solo exhibitions. In addition, displaying Erica’s paintings at the hotel affords me the opportunity to introduce the artist’s work to out-of-town guests who may not know about my gallery here in Newport. Given the incredibly positive response to Erica’s work at the opening reception, it’s clear that her immense creativity, talent and distinctive style appeal to collectors from both near and far.”

 

 

Asked what’s next for her, Driver says she is currently brainstorming concepts for a new series to follow the one on view now and also plans to work on more practical aspects of her art career. She says, “I am focused on building my network, expanding opportunities for people to interact with my work, and continuing to develop my drawing and painting skills.”

 

Erica Driver’s artwork will be on view in the Sarah Langley Gallery at Hammetts Hotel in Newport through March 9. Learn more about her at www.ericadriver.com and follow her on Instagram @ericadriverart.