Eric Fowler Artist Eric Fowler has been documenting the everyday world around us through his paintings for well over a quarter of a century. His work has been compared to that of American painter Edward Hopper. While Hopper was considered a realist, Fowler is better described as an expressionist, as his work is an expression of inner experience rather than solely realistic portrayal, as he seeks to depict not objective reality but the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him.