Peter Van Dyke

 The Moment Holds

 With this series of large-scale paintings, I’m trying to have each piece represent a scene paused at a moment when emotion can surface — an inward glance, a bent knee, a hand suspended mid-thought.

These gestures and expressions act as narrative triggers, offering fragments of a story that never fully resolves. The compositions invite viewers to project their own emotions into the frame — to sense the weight of hesitation, longing, or quiet defiance hidden below the surface.

In this stillness, the ordinary becomes cinematic. The figures don’t speak — they wait — and in their waiting, something deeply human unfolds.

ARTIST STATEMENT

I work in the tension between structure and disruption. Each work is an experiment in process. I don’t start with a style; I start with a question. What happens if I add structure into chaos? How do I paint a face that moves between detail and ambiguity?

Once I’ve got the question, the studio becomes a lab. I test, tweak and rebuild. I carry these techniques and discoveries into the next piece.

I return to portraits often because faces are neurologically loaded. We’re wired to decode them, project onto them and assume entire narratives from a glance.

What connects the work is an underlying logic, a restless curiosity that keeps moving.

BIOGRAPHY

Peter Van Dyke is an American painter, printmaker and musician based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Peter holds a BFA in painting from the University of Wisconsin, where he studied under Mary Barrett and Walter Nottingham. His professional career also spans illustration, User Centered Design and teaching.