Painter Peter Van Dyck studied at Wesleyan University and at the Florence Academy of Art, and is currently a member of the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
His academic background shows in his dynamically balanced compositions, superbly handled color and refined draftsmanship.
Though his subjects include portraits and still life, he often focuses on interiors, in which the play of light though windows, in mirrors and across geometric arrangements of objects takes a central role.
His application of paint can vary from smooth to brusquely textured surfaces, on which his fascination with reflected and refracted light also comes into play.
His interior paintings can have some of the light infused stillness and rich reflections off dark wooden surfaces found in the interiors of Edmund Tarbell, and of the Dutch masters of interior painting like Vermeer and De Hooch who likely inspired both artists.
Van Dyck sometimes chooses subjects that other artists might see as unlikely to be rewarding, like a house heating system, a garden tractor or electric heaters, and finds in them patterns of color, texture and shape that make them seem as natural for subjects as traditional bowls of fruit or arrangements of pottery.
There are two galleries on his web site, recent work and an archive. You can also find his work represented by The John Pence Gallery, Eleanor Ettinger Gallery (work here), Grenning Gallery and Artists’ House Gallery here in Philadelphia, where he is currently part of a group exhibit that is on view until January 16, 2011.