Edward C. Meier

Somehow Ed always knew he was an artist.  Growing up in Sayville, New York on Long Island’s south shore, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the south and the Long Island Sound to the north, he likens the light around Long Island as very similar to what has been written about the atmospheric effects of light in Venice which caused it to become a mecca for many artists.  Ed notes among his greatest influences to be that of the Post-Impressionist Paul Cezanne and the French Impressionists Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.  He also reveres the landscape traditions of the American Hudson River School, artists like Frederic Edwin Church, George Iness, and Albert Bierstadt.  More recently he has tried to emulate the arboreal style of Russian landscape artist Ivan Shishkin and has borrowed realistic painting techniques from contemporary artist Michael James Smith.

In 1978 Ed entered Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York enrolling in the School of Art and Design and majoring in Communications Design.  During his time at Pratt Institute he was fortunate to have studied fine art under several prominent artists including sculptor Toshio Odate and painter Max Gimblett who profoundly expanded his understanding of art and painting.  Developing an interest in package design he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) degree in 1982, returned to his home in Sayville, and spent the next five years in commercial art and graphic design.

Leaving commercial art in 1987, he married and turned to a career in finance that led to a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) at Dowling College, Oakdale, New York in the spring of 1990.  He pursued careers in banking and insurance for five years then twenty five years with the U.S. Government, adding a second job with the Suffolk County Park Police and New York State Park Police until his retirement in 2020.  During this time Ed discovered the sport of fly fishing and found outlets for his artistic passions in fly tying and woodworking.

Moving to Norwich, New York in May of 2020 he returned to painting with renewed enthusiasm.  The rolling hills, forests, and fields of upstate New York are now his home and the source of his greatest inspiration.

“Each new painting enriches my understanding of the power and mystery of art and deepens my belief that when I paint, a little part of my soul is imparted into each piece which longs to share that experience and tell what it saw and what it felt continuously through time.  In this way art has a way of transcending mortality…at least I hope it does…!”