Eric Zener was born in Astoria, Oregon in 1966, but grew up in Encinitas - a small beach town just north of San Diego, California. Zener is a self-taught artist. As of 2004 he had created more than 600 works His paintings, mostly in oil, are in a photo realist or "super-realist" style Zener describes as "Contemporary Renaissance". Zener’s work has been exhibited internationally in Australia, Japan and Spain and is included in numerous corporate, private, and museum collections. His work has been featured in the Robb Report, Juxtapoz, Art & Antiques, Travel & Leisure, New American Paintings, New York Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle and Art News Magazine. For a second, more "experimental" series of water images, Zener painted over photographic transparencies that had been mounted on a wooden box covered with silver leaf, then covered with resin. Other subjects for Zener have included beach scenes, and businessmen in various unexpected settings, such as by swimming pools or on tightropes.