I’m an eyeball realist. I look at things as they are and try to do as much justice to the subject as I possibly can by choosing ordinary objects. I force the viewer to look at them through my eyes. - Eric Forstmann

Eric Forstmann was born in 1962 and raised in Warren, Connecticut. His mother kept Forstmann and his three brothers busy by supplying them with art supplies. "Drawing was a spinout from the roar that was our general family activity,” Forstmann said, in an interview with Berkshirestyle Magazine.

“Warren was a very interesting place to grow up,” Forstmann said. “It’s a small place but it had an extraordinary number of people in the arts – directors, writers, actors, and painters. At a young age I was aware that you could have a life in the arts and be successful.” Forstmann was also inspired by a TV profile about Edward Hopper that he saw when he was fifteen. He said that the works of Hopper made him feel that is was also possible for him to be a successful artist.

After graduating from Wamogo Regional School, Forstmann attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

His first success as an artist was painting trompe l’oeil furniture, which he sold on Madison Avenue.

Forstmann has four children and stayed home for eight years to care for them. He said that he was busy with diaper changes and other distractions and had little time for preparatory drawings. “Pretty much under every painting,” he said, “ there’s a very decent brush drawing of any subject. There’s a basic contour line drawing under the painting.”
He alternates time in his studio, painting everyday objects, and leaving his studio to create plein-air landscapes.

Forstmann has had solo exhibits at at the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, the Evansville Museum of Arts, History, and Science in Evansville Indiana, the Mattatuck Museum of Waterbury, Connecticut and Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia.

His works have been included in exhibits at the Naples Museum of Art in Naples, Florida and at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Forstmann was granted a Residency at the Vermont Studio Center and was elected President of Five Points Center for the Visual Art in Torrington, Connecticut. His work has been showcased in Architectural Digest, ARTnews and New England Home. Litchfield Magazine named him one of the “25 Most Influential People” in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Collectors who have added Forstmann’s work to their private collections include Meryl Streep and Don Gummer, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening and George Stephanopoulos and Ali Wentworth.

I’m an eyeball realist. I look at things as they are and try to do as much justice to the subject as I possibly can by choosing ordinary objects. I force the viewer to look at them through my eyes. - Eric Forstmann

Source:
Survey Gallery, 2025

Eric Forstmann studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston under the tutelage of Barnett Rubenstein and Henry Schwartz.

In addition to his many solo exhibitions, Eric has had five one-man shows at the following institutions: The Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio; The Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, Missouri; The Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science in Evansville, Indiana; the Mattatuck Museum of Waterbury, Connecticut and Brenau Galleries at Brenau University in Gainesville, Georgia. His work has been featured at Art Fairs in Miami, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Houston, San Francisco and New York City.

Eric was included in important shows at the Norman Rockwell Museum in the exhibition Rockwell and Realism in an Abstract World and in Naples Collects at the Naples Museum of Art, Naples, Florida.

His work has been featured in publications Architectural Digest, ARTnews, New England Home, Berkshire Magazine, Connecticut Cottages and Garden and Main Street to name a few. Litchfield Magazine named him one of the “25 Most Influential People in Litchfield County”.

He earned a residency scholarship at the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT in 2019. In the Fall of 2020, Eric was the Artist-in-Residence at Silo Ridge, a Discovery Land Company Community, in Amenia, NY.

Eric serves as President of the Board of Directors for the Five Points Center for the Visual Arts in Torrington, CT. The artist’s studio is also located in Torrington, CT.

Eric Forstmann’s work is held in museums, corporate, public and private collections throughout the U.S. and abroad.