Tor-Arne Moen’s Magical Scenes At RJD Gallery

Currently on view at RJD Gallery in Bridgehampton are the works of painter, printmaker and author Tor-Arne Moen. Moen lives and works in Notodden, Norway with his wife Martine as muse, and creates magical scenes through which viewers can escape, including his painting “Circus Nights,” which is on view at the gallery.

Educated at the Bergen National Academy of the Arts (1988-94), Moen is recognizable by his high-powered figurative technique with heavily painted surfaces consisting of coarse and thick brushstrokes made with varying brush widths, in layer upon layer. According to a release from RJD Gallery, he uses a mix of oil-paint and egg-oil tempera, an old technique based on an emulsifying binder. Emulsion is a mixture of two substances that initially cannot be mixed, in this case oil and water. The egg is added as the emulsifier, which allows the oil and water to mix. The word tempera refers to the actual painting technique and was used by the masters since Medieval times.

“While the tempera is often applied in thin layers, Moen uses it with oil-paint, and in generous amounts, in order to get the creamy texture, and set the brushstrokes in relief to the canvas,” notes the release. “For two periods, from 2004 to 2012 and from 2017 onwards, he has worked with a nostalgic approach to the painting based on old black-and-white family album photographs as motive basis and support for the eye.

“Even though the references and the narrative in these paintings have a retrospective character, the spectator is forced to realize that the images are made in our present time, and seen with the eyes, and nostalgia of our time.”

RJD Gallery is at 2385 Main Street in Bridgehampton. For more information visit rjdgallery.com.