Eric Sloane
 Eric Sloane was born Everard J. Hinricks in 1910 in New York City and died in 1985. At fifteen, he ran away from his home in which there was no interest in art. He traveled in a Model T to the Pennsylvania Amish country as a sign painter. He received lessons from Fred Goudy, who designed most of the fine type faces of modern day printing. At an airport called Rossevelt Field, Sloane lettered names and numbers on early aircraft. That experience let him to flying, which inspired many of his works. He later painted a mural called "Earth Flight" at the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum.
Sloane studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts and the New York School of Fine Arts. In New York City he changed his naem, taking Eric from the internal letters of Am(eric)a and his last name from his teacher John Sloane without the 'e.' Sloane studied meterology at MIT and became the first weatherman on television. His first book Clouds, Air, and Wind subsequently became an Air Force manual.
Eric Sloane is best known for his sense of nostalgia and for preserving our national heritage. Sloane attempted to capture the disappearing American landscape and to document our former way of life. He devoted his life to recording US history. Through his books and paintings he became the foremost authority on Americana.
Sloane painted with great vigor and used his materials quickly, scraping away with a razor blade to create textural effects. In the painting Spring in Cambridge you can see where he has, with amaing sureness of stroke, created a fishing pole and line in one movement. Sloane used razor blades, an almost dry brush, the handle and his hands to create just the right effect for his paintings. To complete the effect he wanted for this particular work, Sloane made the frame from weathered barn wood.
Sloane had homes in both Santa Fe and Warren, Conn. He always painted moods and concepts. He had a long and successful career as an artist and historian. His many awards came from such sources as the Freedom Foundation, the American Academy of Achievement, the Allied Artists of America, the National Academy of Design, and the Gold Medal of the National Arts Club.
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