RJD Gallery | 5/1-6/2 | Romeo, MI

The Light of Summer

RJD Gallery presents new work for Norwegian painter Tor-Arne Moen

Summer has a universal meaning across cultures and countries. When the temperature rises, suddenly the outdoor air is more inviting. Bodies of water are suddenly full of flailing limbs and playful laughs, streets are full of rattling bicycles and people return to the world ready to explore. And no one thrives on this time better than children. Dressed Up for Sunday, egg oil tempera on canvas, 39¼ x 39¼”Summers and children are some of the new themes explored in Tor-Arne Moen’s new show, In the Light of Summer, opening May 1 at RJD Gallery in Romeo, Michigan. “Children and childhood as a circle of motives may not be very original, but everyone has a childhood and their memories and their own retrospective melancholy,” Moen says from his studio in Notodden, Norway. “I myself have often turned my retrospective circle of motives back to a time that would fit more with my father’s generation of childhood than my own, even though I have often painted myself and my brother and the others who were around me growing up. So it’s about me and not about me.”The Smell of Coffee, egg oil tempera on canvas, 39 1/3 x 39 1/3”

And while there are certain motifs in the new show—swimming and beaches come up in several works—the new pieces are more experiments in paint than narrative opportunities.

“My inspiration is almost always the same—it has to do with visual interest. The motif in itself is not necessarily the most important, and most often the motif is more of an excuse to paint. I often choose motifs that interest me or move me, but the most important thing about a painting for me is how it is made, the pictorial lecture, so to speak,” Moen says. “Painting as such is for me, first and foremost, a tactile experience and an experience-based preoccupation with the painting surface itself—how one color meets another, how a large area with a wide brush meets a small area with a small brush…These are the traces of the brush’s hair, the thinner paint that runs, partial overpaintings of other colors and coats that give expressions I could not predict. I seek to combine precision work in parts of the image and more reckless and expressive work in other parts. Thus, accidents occur along the way that often cover or destroy the precise and leaves the painting with a history of the very process of building up and tearing down, then rebuilding again.”Beach, Suspenders and Ice Cream, egg oil tempera on canvas, 35½ x 35½”

Pipe Smoker, egg oil tempera on canvas, 35½ x 35½”One of the key works in the show is Circus Nights, a surrealist painting showing a woman holding a picture frame and hula-hoop as a school of fish circle around her. Nearby, and watching carefully, is a lion on his best behavior, though his presence alone seems to suggest danger could transpire at any moment. “The lion, the lady with the hula-hoop, the frame and the fish swimming through the hoop are painted with quite great precision but with as large brushes as possible, while the floor and wall are painted in contrasting surfaces with large strokes,” he says of his process. “My method changes, but it changes slowly, only every time I feel that I am in a process that is better or more interesting, I am led to new paths. I can see in older works that I have progressed technically and that the painting has become more advanced, but I also see that previous works can have a greater vitality and willingness to take risks. For me, my interest in painting lies in further research into material aesthetics, yet it would never occur to me to paint an abstract painting. The motive is what keeps me going, so to speak—without the motive I think everything flows out and ceases to be interesting.”Picnic Preparations, egg oil tempera on canvas, 35½ x 35½"

All Things Considered, egg oil tempera on canvas, 32 x 32"For Joi Jackson Perle, the gallery director at RJD, Moen’s motives and his subjects reveal deeper qualities of humanity. “Each Tor-Arne Moen artwork is a revelation and a celebration of what makes us all human—love! Steeped in happy memories, each work presents simple moments that later become our most golden moments—a picnic, a beach outing, a family gathering,” Perle says. “Moen’s style is loose and soft, like any good memory, leaving only the tenderness of a smile, a touch and a laugh on the canvas. How wonderful to have these moments captured in art, to visit time and time again, and bring us back to those sensitive and priceless times.”