“Recent Work,” an exhibit of paintings and drawings by Aaron Tinder, is currently on display in the Memorial Union.

“The first thing to catch the eye is the strong contrast,” said Theresa Cannon, program adviser for the arts in the Memorial Union. “Then when I get up close it is how he has applied the paint.”

All of Tinder’s pieces are oil paintings, although there are some that also have charcoal.

“With the combination pieces I would go back and forth between oil and charcoal,” Tinder said.

“There are two groups of paintings,” Tinder said. “One group is mainly trains and railroads as the main focus; they are not completely realistic. The second group is more recent and uses people or groups of people as the subject in a landscape setting.”

“I draw a lot of influence from the artist, Richard Deibenkorn,” he added. “He is a really well-known artist, at least among the art world. He has probably been the biggest influence on my work.”

The Union heard about Tinder’s work from Cannon, who went to undergraduate school with Tinder.

While Tinder, of Indianola, was an undergraduate at Simpson College, he began to focus more on his own artwork. He then went to graduate school at the University of Northern Illinois.

Tinder said the experience of painting has changed since he was in college. At that time “it was more of an immediate experience,” he said. “As I get older and I think more maturely in the process, I am getting better at conveying the message. It takes more careful planning than you might think,” he said.

Most of Tinder’s work is valued anywhere from $400 to $800, but there is one piece in the Union valued at $1,000.

The exhibit will be on display in the Pioneer Room of the Memorial Union until Oct. 28.