Artist of the Month Tollef Runquist Opening Reception

Artist of the Month Tollef Runquist Opening Reception November 10

“Painting for me is an undertaking of appreciation and inquiry. It is a means by which to engage the beauty and mystery of visual experience in an ongoing dialogue,” said Tollef Runquist, the November Artist of the Month at the Camden Public Library. “This is a widening puzzle; as I partake in this conversation, it continually refreshes itself, revealing unexpected angles and new understanding. I feel no particular loyalty to realism or my own past work. I set to draw out a particular vision as long as my experience with it is visceral, attentive and useful. I try to encapsulate the fullness of my experience of a moment; weight and stillness, burning edges, massive calm. These move me towards a particular subject, I try to paint and honor them, and then move on.” Runquist’s oil paintings are brilliantly colored in bold strokes, generally painted outdoors. There will be an opening reception for Runquist in the Picker Room at 2:00 pm on Saturday, November 10 at which the artist will give a short talk about his work. The Dowling Walsh Gallery is the host for the Runquist exhibit at the library this November. The artwork will be on display November 2 to November 29.

Runquist continued, “Some visual artists who have affected me deeply have been Richard Diebenkorn, Monet, De Kooning, Gauguin, Bonnard, Rothko, Sargent, Gordon Grant, Gerhard Richter, Hopper, Homer, Klimt and Egon Schiele among others. I have been drawing and painting as long as I can remember. I received a B.A. in studio Art from Dickinson College in 2002 and have since been continuing my education through creation.”