Peter Moen likes to use his skills as a portrait painter to make comments on current events by using partially abstract elements in his paintings. His range covers highly realistic paintings to those that possess a stylized aesthetic. Each of his subjects has an emotive quality capturing the true essence of each person. More often than not, Moen is not interested in photo realism and so his paintings result in a more interpretive quality while he inserts a bit of abstraction. He primarily uses oil paint on wood panels, canvas, or other substrates like single-use plastic when commenting on ocean plastic pollution. He also works on large scale commissioned murals and sculptural installations. 

Moen grew up during the ’60s in South San Jose, California. He went to U.C. Berkeley and became an engineer for a rocket company. In 2006, he took a drawing class where he discovered he could actually draw well. That initiated his academic art pursuit where he first received an Associate of Science degree at San Jose City College in fine arts and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Pictorial Art at San Jose State University. Since then, he has been widely exhibiting in the Bay Area and throughout the United States.