Art Premiere 10: Erik Drudwyn

When I first met Erik Drudwyn, it was a virtual meeting... I was an art collector frequenting the eBay auction site when Erik's untitled pencil rendition of a gorgeous female set in a lush jungle environment caught my eye, and I eventually won that auction. About a year or so later, he switched mediums to charcoal and I won an auctioned piece entitled "Grimhild", a major departure from his previous penciled effort. But it was when he posted "Nefertiti", a full-colour charcoal piece with a level of fine detail that I had never before seen executed in charcoal that I was prompted to alert Robert Bane, curator of the Tamara Bane Art Gallery in Los Angeles, California.
In my eyes, as an astute art collector of the pinup and erotica genre, Erik's talent level was increasing rapidly. We had at some point before this become friends over the internet, and I felt that since I had a contact within the art gallery that the best way to show my appreciation would be to introduce Erik and his works to the owner, Robert Bane, through my sales contact at the time. It did not take long for Mr. Bane to realize what I had seen in Erik, which was that he had developed into a formidable talent well suited to the tastes of the clientele of the Tamara Bane Gallery.
In fact, Erik is now a featured artist on the Robert Bane website. Seeing his name there with erotic art masters such as Sorayama and Olivia gives me great personal satisfaction.
Since then I have marveled at how he has mastered the medium of charcoal, and how he has once again taken his talents to another level by exploring the field of mixed mediums. Erik is one of the finest artists that I have had the pleasure of knowing, and I considered it an honor when he asked me to write the forward for his works in the Art Premiere book which you are now reading. For those of you seeing some of Erik's works for the very first time, prepare to be amazed.
Robert T. Mruczek (Erotic Art and Pin-Up Collector)