A native of Portland, Oregon, artist Eric Wert received a BA in Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1997 and has been painting professionally ever since.

Capsicum, 40 x 40, oil on panel

Wert's eye for snaking textures continues in this composition, full of colour so rich it looks like it could bleed out of the panel. The eponymous vegetables are almost sweating with intensity.

He's known for his larger-than-life (but nonetheless pretty realistic) still-life paintings and drawings, most of which are based around plant life and food. It's his textural play that we love most about his work – these cabbages and lettuces manage to look both hyperrealistic and wildly ethereal at the same time. "I want to create an image that one can be lost within," he says. "To me, still-life painting is about looking intensely. It's about intimately exploring a subject."

Check out some of his best work in the gallery above.

For more information on the artist, go to werteric.com