An exhibit by pastel artist Tim Peterson opened at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City this weekend. Titled “Drive By Stories,” the show features brightly colored slice-of-life scenes that Peterson says he notices when he’s going about his day.
Peterson says soft pastels, or dry pastels, are pure color held together with a bit of binder, and so they don’t fade, dry out, or crack as other painting mediums tend to do.
Peterson, who studied art at Northern State at Aberdeen, says he has worked with other media—watercolor, oil, pen and ink, and colored pencil—but a few years ago he turned to pastels.
He says his primary influence is Edward Hopper, who simplified complicated scenes and minimized detail, painting ordinary people engaged in ordinary pursuits.
“Things that happen on a daily basis that we might not see, that either make us laugh or make us sad or give us a different reason to think about something—that’s always appealed to me,” Peterson says. “So I’m always on the lookout for something like that, but of course I never see it when I’m looking for it. It just comes up and smacks you upside the head when you’re not ready for it. So if I ever feel bad about going to a meeting or a reception or the dentist’s office, I always think to myself I might see something there.”
Peterson says he doesn’t work from photographs. After a scene grabs him, he makes a drawing of it soon after and then determines whether to paint it.
For more information about Tim Peterson's art, visit his studio online:
http://timpetersonstudio.com/
