My name is Eric Alexander Santoli and I'm a painter and teacher. I love teaching, traveling and painting outdoors! I am the creator and host of Eric En Plein Air - an instructional painting and travel series for public television.
I'm a 2014 BFA graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a 2013 certificate recipient of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2024, I received my MA in Studio Art from the Florence Academy of Art. My artistic education has been largely academic which has provided a strong foundation of principles that I share with my students. I enjoy combining these principles with the methods of impressionism, which has more of a spontaneous energy.
In May of 2021, I was awarded the Versailles Foundation's prestigious Munn Fellowship Artist Residency Award. For this Fellowship, I lived as Artist-in-Residence at Claude Monet's house and gardens in Giverny, France from May until August of 2023. This was a magical summer and my first time in France. I loved every second of this residency and I saw things that I had only dreamed of seeing. After I got home, I was able to pursue more travel and teaching opportunities.
My teaching career began as a Professor of art history at Bergen Community College, near my home in Bergen County, NJ. I still enjoy teaching art history, but my true passion is to teach others how to make art in a studio setting or en plein air. I pursued my dream and transitioned into teaching painting and drawing. Now, I am proud to say that I have taught hundreds of students of all ages and skill levels in several classes and workshops at various schools and institutions, both public and private.
In addition to painting and teaching, I enjoy being outdoors, gardening, reading, writing, skateboarding and riding my Triumph Bonneville T100.
I'm a 2014 BFA graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and a 2013 certificate recipient of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. In 2024, I received my MA in Studio Art from the Florence Academy of Art. My artistic education has been largely academic which has provided a strong foundation of principles that I share with my students. I enjoy combining these principles with the methods of impressionism, which has more of a spontaneous energy.
In May of 2021, I was awarded the Versailles Foundation's prestigious Munn Fellowship Artist Residency Award. For this Fellowship, I lived as Artist-in-Residence at Claude Monet's house and gardens in Giverny, France from May until August of 2023. This was a magical summer and my first time in France. I loved every second of this residency and I saw things that I had only dreamed of seeing. After I got home, I was able to pursue more travel and teaching opportunities.
My teaching career began as a Professor of art history at Bergen Community College, near my home in Bergen County, NJ. I still enjoy teaching art history, but my true passion is to teach others how to make art in a studio setting or en plein air. I pursued my dream and transitioned into teaching painting and drawing. Now, I am proud to say that I have taught hundreds of students of all ages and skill levels in several classes and workshops at various schools and institutions, both public and private.
In addition to painting and teaching, I enjoy being outdoors, gardening, reading, writing, skateboarding and riding my Triumph Bonneville T100.