Eric Carlstrom

Eric Carlstrom lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. His use of bright colors and heavy black in his paintings makes them visually vibrant and give them a distinctive look. Eric paints mostly in acrylic, but he doesn’t limit himself when it comes to expression in his art. He works in clay, papier-mâché, plaster and watercolor. Eric also makes assemblage sculpture and paints on found objects. He believes that art can be moving and inspirational, but also can just be fun and humorous. Eric paints in abstract, but most of his art has an illustrative feel and is inspired by tattooing and tattoo flash art. He has a large collection of tattoos and tattoo art by local SF Bay Area artists. The influence of Japanese woodblock prints and the Mexican festival Dia de los Muertos are both popular imagery in tattooing and can be seen in Eric’s artwork. Eric also paints landscapes and flowers that tend to have a craftsman style. He mostly enjoys painting from his own imagination but occasionally paints from photographs and does other work on commission. Eric graduated from Pinole Valley High, then studied art at Contra Costa College in San Pablo and Laney College in Oakland. While at college He studied sculpture, silkscreen printing, figure drawing, painting, ceramics (high-fire and raku), photography and printmaking (etching, aquatint and linocut). He has been a member of Martinez Art Association and Pinole Artisans Foundation. Eric worked as a portrait photographer for 15 years before concentrating more heavily on painting and other forms of expression.

 e-mail: [email protected]    

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Eric's 16x20 museum quality, canvas giclee print titled “Orange Moon” was the prize for the free raffle in February 2023. The lucky winner is here on the right, holding her artwork prize. 

​Congratulations to Ian Hofstetter, winner of  the January 2024 drawing prize. "Kimono" by Eric Carlstrom.