Eric Manning
A Lifetime in Medicine Ultimately Makes Room for Painting
He worked his way through UCLA, graduating with a degree in biology, and then got into a Berkeley Ph.D. program in physiology. As a top student in anatomy, he wound up teaching several students – giving rise to a new fascination with the human figure. Next, Eric paid his way through medical school at UC Davis by teaching histology there. Wanting to get away from California, his next move was to Boston, where he did an internship and a residency at Boston University, followed by a fellowship in nephrology.
Then came a professorship for two years at Penn State and Hershey Medical Center, five years with a nephrologists’ group in Princeton, N.J., and finally his own nephrology practice, which is based in Hillsborough, N.J. He is also medical director of a dialysis center in Somerville, N.J.
Painting as an avocation arose late in Eric Manning’s career. Interested in art as a teenager in Riverside, California, Eric dabbled in pen and ink and watercolors, but his family hadn’t the financial resources for formal
lessons. So Eric shelved his art interests for decades in favor of a career in medicine, but, driven by something outside that profession, he never lost his fascination for the outdoors with its panoply of colors, shapes and shadows.
He worked his way through UCLA, graduating with a degree in biology, and then got into a Berkeley Ph.D. program in physiology. As a top student in anatomy, he wound up teaching several students – giving rise to a new fascination with the human figure. Next, Eric paid his way through medical school at UC Davis by teaching histology there. Wanting to get away from California, his next move was to Boston, where he did an internship and a residency at Boston University, followed by a fellowship in nephrology.
Then came a professorship for two years at Penn State and Hershey Medical Center, five years with a nephrologists’ group in Princeton, N.J., and finally his own nephrology practice, which is based in Hillsborough, N.J. He is also medical director of a dialysis center in Somerville, N.J.
Finally, an Opportunity for Artistic Expression
Over the years in New Jersey, Eric C. Manning, M.D., Ph.D., has become affiliated with Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and Somerville, St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick, Princeton Medical Center in Plainsboro, and Hunterdon Medical Center in Flemington. He is on call 60 to 80 hours per week. The rest of the time he paints.
Seeking something to fill empty hours following a divorce in 2012, Eric finally returned to art. Initially, he took some group lessons in acrylics and, drawing on his studies in anatomy and physiology, produced one of his first figure paintings in acrylics, two sisters holding hands. Landscapes followed, and he quickly discovered he was “really crazy” about painting. When he gets home at night, he hurries up to his third-floor studio to paint – often from photographs he has taken of people and places that “speak” to him.
Although Eric admits to picking up some painting lessons as well on YouTube, he is largely self-taught with no formal fine art training. He constantly stretches his comfort zone to try new techniques and new subjects.
ERic manning studio
Eric’s Style: Impressionistic, Expressive
Asked to describe his style, Eric Manning names a half-dozen contemporary impressionist painters whose styles he admires.
“I use a lot of bright colors, so my style is very impressionistic,” he says. “I like color, I always have; I find it very stimulating to my brain. I like to be able to use shadow, light and dark in my paintings, and I like different topics. I like to add some interest in the painting that’s different from most; I like to bring in movement with people, like something is happening in the work. I can’t use muted tones; they just don’t excite me.
“As a physician, I spend my time taking care of patients and their concerns and needs. But, by the end of the day, I find myself in my studio painting tender scenes, or beautiful landscapes. I settled initially on the acrylic medium because of my time constraints. After attempting to master it for three years, I have embraced oils, and I love them.
“My style might be described as expressive, bright, impressionistic at times, and flowing. Of the themes I paint, most of my audience has been drawn to children at play, children doing an activity, or kids enjoying the beach. I am originally from California, and this draws me back to the landscapes there. So, vineyards, trees, open fields, rivers, hills and mountains are most attractive to me. I do my best to include colors and shadows to attract the viewer. I paint from photos, plein air or from my imagination.”
Eric Manning
Talent Acknowledged
A few years after Eric began painting, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital launched an exhibit of staff members’ art in its atrium in New Brunswick, N.J., and Eric contributed a number of works from his growing collection. Ten of Eric’s works continue to be on permanent display at RWJ; he is the only physician whose paintings are exhibited there, in a glass case in the hallway that connects the hospital atrium with the Clinical Academic Building.
Eric has paintings permanently on display in the first-floor hallway at Lone Eagle Brewing in Flemington, N.J., where he also stages
large showings twice a year.
Eric Manning’s Studio, on the third floor of a stately Victorian house at 6 N. Main St., Flemington, N.J., is open by appointment for visitors who wish to watch him paint, view his collection, or discuss commissioning a painting.
