Remembering an artist and mad man

Former Glen Ridge resident Robert Trondsen recently had a painting exhibit at the Ridgewood Avenue train station.

The show was mounted by his son Peter as a celebration of his father who died Nov. 23, 2025, at the age of 88. Trondsen lived in the borough from 1974 to 1993, later moving to the Hudson Valley.

“He was a real natural, an amazing talent,” Peter said as he hung his own painting currently on view at the station. “When my brother and I were kids, we loved his paintings. We’d talk about techniques like wet-on-wet which is what my paintings are. Both my brother and I became perfectionists. I’ll always remember the smell of oil paints growing up.”

Trondsen was born and raised in Corning, N.Y. and studied advertising and art design at the State University of New York.

“He worked as a freelance artist in the advertising field in New York City during the mad men days of the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s,” Peter said.

Trondsens’ clients included ABC Network, Life Savers, Lever Bros. and Nabisco. He also did on-screen projects for Hollywood movies. One project, for Woody Allen’s “Zelig”, is in the Museum of Moving Images in Astoria, Queens.

At the exhibit, Trondsen’s draughtsmanship was on full display with huge, realistic portraits of Jackson Pollack and Picasso. According to his son, these were done before he moved to the Hudson Valley and both had been accomplished freehand.

“He was still doing commercial art,” he added.

One fascinating painting, untitled, appears to be a landscape seen through a window with either shiny baking pans on the sill or a group of squat buildings in the distance with the sun reflecting off the roof. Peter said his father was experimenting with a geometric style.

“When he started doing it, I thought it was interesting,” he said. “My father was a traditionalist and wanted to modernize his style. But he went back to a traditional style — still lifes and landscapes. He was a commercial illustrator, a country boy at heart, who moved up to the Hudson Valley and had to retrain himself to paint.”

The landscapes were thoughtful and perhaps even whimsical because in several of them the cloud formations seem to be a heavenly representation of the landscapes below. Autumn Leaves is a dense cluster of trees overlooked by thickened clouds blushed red by a setting sun. Cloud Scene has gently shaded spheres in an immense cloud mass above a group of small, individual trees that seem to be wandering across a field. Not a Rorschach test, but as provoking. Like any good work of art, they make you realize how much there is to learn.

“He always told me not to put my horizon line directly in the center of the painting,” Peter said. “Composition was a big topic with us. He said if you paint using values with a decent composition, you’re going to have a good painting each time.”

Peter said he had gone to school for art, but went into computers. The pandemic refocused him on painting. He taught photoshop to his father who would always get mad when Adobe changed something.

“The opening of his show was a celebration of life art show,” Peter said. “His cousin and wife came down from Corning. I hadn’t seen them since I was a kid.”

Trondsen did not have the strength to paint the last few years of his life. Peter said he was really glad he had the time to spend with him when he started painting again.

“It was a valuable time in life,” he said.

Peter Trondsen’s painting will be exhibited until April 22. From April 25 to May 25 his work will be at the Center Stage Gallery, 108 Bloomfield Ave., Montclair.