In 1979 Ron Ehrlich went to Japan to study ceramics in a monastery for three months and stayed for three years.

Living today in Providence, Rhode Island, he is a painter of abstraction that represents "… the marrying of the Eastern technique to the canons of the New York School, the directions of the contemporary and a private vision.

This is work that relies not on abstract imperatives but contains them." (J. Bowyer Bell, exhibition catalog, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, 2001) Ehrlich’s subject matter is elusive. Horses and figures emerge from a complex network of aggressive markings and delicate lines, then recede back into abstraction defying the ‘reality’ of the glimpsed image.

The technical complexity of the painting,, extrapolated from the intricacies of Japanese pottery making, is an intensification of conventional oil painting with the use of a blowtorch to fuse multiple layers of oil paint and sand into a fascinating and delightful surface.

Ehrlich creates powerfully unforgettable works, which illuminate the complexities of the subconscious. A process that conveys "the joyful excitement of his experimentation" (Jerry Cullum, Atlanta Journal Constitution, 1997) combined with iconographic imagery that is both naïve and elegant, result in deeply satistying paintings that " … can be cherished over and over not just for that singular first impact but because they vibrate every time with the joy of each viewing." (J. Bowyer Bell, 2001.

Ron Ehrlich attended Connecticut College, New London, CT, Joji Yamasita, Bizen Province, Japan, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO and Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island. He continues to live and work in Rhode Island, and shows nationally and in Asia.