Ed Weber
Name: Ed Weber
City: Fort Lauderdale
Birthplace: New York
Artistic Medium: Graphite, Pen & Ink, Acrylics, Watercolor and Photography
How did you get started? Self-taught. I've been drawing since I was child around 5. I drew a portrait of my father at age 12 in Realism as he sat for me. That's when we both knew I had a talent. Photography evolved from images used as models for drawings to film and digital images created as open and limited edition prints on paper and/or canvas.
Who or what are your influences? I doodled my way through some school classes. As a teenager, I was influenced by Leonardo da Vinci, M.C. Escher, Peter Max and others. Photographers such as Weston and Adams. During my late teens and into my mid-20s, I thought I wanted to be a commercial artist. Eventually I realized I didn't want someone telling me what to draw or create. I continued to pursue Realism with Pen & Ink and pencil in an effort to hone my skills, believing the more detail, the more perfect the image.
After moving to Los Angeles in 1984 at 30 years old, I was still doing commission work in Pen & Ink and in pencil, branching out in addition to the figurative work (celebrity portraiture) to other subjects like yachts, seascapes and landscapes. In 1989, I was hired by one of the top three fine art publishers in the world at the time representing 4-10 artists and their oils on canvas and limited edition silk-screen serigraphs on paper and canvas. It is there I fell in love with the European and American Impressionists such as John Singer Sargent, Claude Monet, Joaquin Sorolla, and many others. The way they captured light was astonishing to me as was their wonderful palettes. I have been a fine art consultant for fine art sales, fine art printing, fine art framing and fine art galleries for the past 22+ years.
What inspires your work? The challenge of capturing the image in its likeness while telling a story I find inspiring and hopefully my viewers and collectors find attractive. The beauty of women and the stunning, graceful lines of their bodies is something I have always placed on a pedestal and learned to appreciate through my father as I was younger and through the drawings, paintings and sculpture of some of the masters of our time. I've matured in my tastes by being exposed to masterpieces by Michelangelo, Rodin, da Vinci, to name a few.
How does Miami/South Florida influence your work? I've only been back from Los Angeles just over 5 years at the time of this writing. I must admit, I haven't spent much time in Miami, and therefore it hasn't had much if any influence on my art personally, with the exception of my exposure to the primitive, but topical art of the late Purvis Young of Overtown. Fort Lauderdale, on the other hand, where I lived from 1967-84, is where I go looking for classic tropical settings that include the sand beaches, clear beautiful color of the water, the swaying palm trees and the sun, and the shadows it provides in the morning and afternoon. I also find myself sketching many of the 'free' models sitting or lying on the beach near me. I don't impose on anyone; after all, they are there to enjoy the beach for their own reasons. It forces me to sketch quickly while I study bone and muscle structure, as well as light and shadow. They don't realize what I'm doing and I'm not taking anything from them, so "no harm, no foul." And I save $20-$60 per hour for a model to pose, although not always in the pose I prefer, but hey, it's free!
How would you describe your work? Realism that draws your attention to the detail to achieve the image and the play of light and shadow on the subject that gives it a dramatic feeling. In my photography, especially in the last 10 years, I capture a story that allows the viewer to interpret for themselves without me trying to pigeonhole them into my perspective. Either can be correct. My compositions invite you into the image so you can experience it in a very personal way.
What has been the most unusual reaction to your work from the public?
As for my photography, it has been mistaken at times as paintings, even though they have no special effects on them. While other photographs are abstract images that people find images in or interpret, based on their life's experiences and things they've been exposed to. When it comes to my Pen & Ink or pencil drawings, whether in the styles of Realism or Impressionism, it's usually as amazement of the detail of the work and the time and effort spent creating it.
What would you like to achieve as an artist?
Complete freedom to create what I have a passion for, and a voice to express it, while having my collectors appreciate it while paying me the highest compliment they can by purchasing it with their hard-earned money. I don't need popularity or fame. My art isn't ego-driven. I do it as a form of self-expression, as cliché' as that sounds, that has to be released, like having to eat every day. If I go too long without doing it, I crave it! And the freedom to travel this huge, interesting planet with all its beauty, grandeur and hidden ancient sites.
Upcoming shows:
One pending at Rossetti Fine Art in Pompano, FL for a new, very unique collection I'm currently working on as Abstract/Expressionistic acrylic paintings on canvas and perhaps other substrates.
Where is your work available?
Examples of some of my photography can be found on http://Society6.com/EdWeber. Other works will be made available on another yet-to-be-determined site in the near future, so stay tuned...
