Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin W. Berrett.
Hi Erin W., it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Art has always been my language — it’s simply how I’m wired. But the path from a kid who loved to draw to a working painter was shaped by a few pivotal forces.
Teachers mattered enormously. From early watercolor classes to high school with Marjorie McClure, to the University of Utah where Paul Davis, Connie Borup, and others pushed me in ways I didn’t expect — I was lucky to be seen and challenged by people who understood how I thought and what I could become.
My formal education gave me both a foundation and a community. The Helper workshops were transformative — immersive, rigorous, and full of artists I deeply respected.
6 years later, and shortly after I got married, my husband kept encouraging me to BE A PAINTER. He had so much faith in me. With his push and his support, I quit my job and started painting full-time.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The road has had its bumps, but honestly? The last few years have been the most successful of my career. The post-pandemic period brought something unexpected — even more hunger for original art and human connection.
The imposter syndrome that used to dog me has quieted considerably. I won’t say it’s gone entirely, but I’ve made a kind of peace with it.
And I’m turning 50 this year — which feels less like a milestone to dread and more like an arrival. There’s a confidence that comes with this decade that I genuinely didn’t anticipate. I think it shows in the work.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Still life is my world, and oil paint is my only medium.
When I paint, I never blend. Every painting is built from thousands of individual marks laid side by side — layers of color that only resolve into meaning when you step back. Up close, a few square inches might look like pure chaos. From across the room it is highly representational. That translation between painter and viewer is what fascinates me.
The marks are the painting as much as the subject is.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Show up. Put the hours in. That sounds simple, but I fully trust it.
There’s no shortcut to becoming the painter you want to be — you just have to paint, and paint a lot. The days I don’t feel like working are often the ones that surprise me most. Discipline and inspiration aren’t opposites; discipline is what makes space for inspiration to arrive.
But the deeper lesson, the one that’s really settled in as I’ve gotten older, is gratitude. I get to paint paintings for a living. I get to do the thing I dreamed about as a kid.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.ewbpaintings.com/paintings/current-work/
- Instagram: @erinwberrett
