Brett Eberhardt

"Studio Corner"   2012   Oil on panel  29 x 36.5 inches

"A History of Painting"  2011  Oil on panel    14 x 11.75 inches

"Red Plate (after Lopez)"   2011   Oil on panel   18 x 26 inches

"Studio Baseboard"   2010   Oil on panel   12.5 x 16 inches

"Mapping"   2010   Conte' pencil and acyrlic on paper   27 x 28 inches

Brett Eberhardt deals in realism of a particular brand, a kind of minimalist realism in spare compositions. Much of it looks at a single object resting on a plain rough well used whitewashed shelf. The objects are often mundane, usually something that would naturally be in an artist's studio; an old used jar of linseed oil for example. Other paintings depict a single piece of utilitarian furniture, empty, sitting against a wall. My favorites remove all these items and merely depict the wall itself, layers of cracked paint chipping away and the roughly used hardwood floor running up to meet it. Because Brett Eberhardt isn't interested in the subject matter per se. It's as if he merely makes a quick scan of his surroundings, the artist's studio, and selects something, anything, to be the fulcrum for his creative lever. What he is interested in is how brushwork can mimic texture, and his expressive ability to make it do so brings these spare humble images to life. Look at that white shelf. You can see old dents and scrapes covered over in layers of white house paint which has since been stained by the bottoms of various dripping jars. There's a single old nail hole. And it's all captured in confident undisguised brushwork, not the painstaking detail work that often kills hyper-realism. I'd call this work both modest, beautiful and smart; a winning combination wherever you find it.
There's more to look at here: bretteberhardtpainting.com