Artist Biography
French born artist, Eric Duplan spent his childhood in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda. As a teenager he moved to South Africa, joining the School of Performing Arts, in Johannesburg. He followed this, by studying interior design and stained glass making.
In the early 1980’s Eric joined the Lintas Group Advertising Agency as an illustrator. The then became a freelance illustrator and over the next eight years worked for most of the major advertising houses in Johannesburg. It was during this time that Eric illustrated a number of front covers for the Financial Mail and was commissioned by Gencor to sculpt a series of bronzes trophies.
He moved to the Western Cape and became a muralist specializing in trompe l’oeil. His many murals have included a major commission for a hotel in Ostend, Belgium. In 1989 Eric transitioned to full time painting and based himself on an isolated farm on South Africa’s rugged western coast. The magnificent surroundings inspired his many large land and seascape paintings.
Eric paints in oil and his paintings are many faceted, mixing fine details with abstract architectural renderings in a technique that produces pieces reminiscent of a Zen Garden, where a certain meditative quality is induced. A reflection of both Eric’s thoughts and mediations as he paints and those created in the patron. In his latest solo exhibition Eric’s works are perhaps most easily described as topographical landscapes and yet that is too simplistic. They are almost archeological with a bird’s eye view of the landscape in which the ruins take on figurative and symbolic form. The passage of time echoed in the many layers of paint.
His paintings grace many corporate and private collections, both locally and aboard. Eric currently paints from his studio in Pretoria, South Africa.
