Norman Ringdahl was a college junior when he decided on a painting major. His next decision: what to paint? He didn’t have to look very far.

“I painted the things around me, the painting studio and its worn-out, overstuffed couches, the view out the massive studio windows both day and night, the clouds and sunsets and the reflection of light on the brick buildings. I painted the views outside my dorm window,” he said.

Later on he painted the landscapes near his home, the subtle colors of tall field grass illuminated by the sun. Later still, he painted scenes around his summer home on Sunset Lake in Ashburnham. “This is a beautiful and relaxing spot on the water with lots of great marsh areas to paint,” he said. Many of those marsh paintings will be in Ringdahl’s new show, “Reflected Light,” which opens at the Spaulding R. Aldrich Gallery in Whitinsville July 16 and runs through Sept. 10.

Ringdahl’s compositions draw attention to the abstract patterns found everywhere within nature. Recently, tidal pools, dunes and his beloved marshes have been favored subjects, especially in the mercurial light of day’s end. During the day, Ringdahl usually can be found at the Worcester gallery he owns, the Prints and the Potter. He is a fine arts graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology and active in the Worcester arts community, including ARTSWorcester, the Worcester Life Drawing Group and Art in the Park.

As a gallery owner, how does it feel to be the artist seeking a show? “It’s very gratifying and enriching to have other galleries interested in showing my work,” Ringdahl said. “Any artist needs the visibility and exposure of several galleries or opportunities to show their work to gain the exposure they need.”

There is always a risk , however.

“There are times when you submit work for juried shows and there is always the possibility of rejection,” he said. “As in anything in life, you need to deal with that rejection and continue on. Not everyone will like what you do. I guess that’s when an artist has to develop a thick skin.”

The submission process also can yield unexpected benefits.

“One of the things I enjoy most is meeting other artists and gallery directors,” he said. “There seems to always be camaraderie of shared ideas leading to new thought on possible subjects, artistic techniques and marketing ideas.”

When he finds time in the midst of all that, he paints — especially at twilight.

“The chance to capture a moment in time is the reason I like to paint the light at the end of the day,” he said.

“Successfully capturing that moment is a challenge. As the sun sets it highlights the landscape with light and shadow that for only a brief moment accentuates the contrasts.”

Ringdahl loves those contrasts, among them “the subtle tones of field or marsh grass, the hard and textural qualities of rocks by the seashore and the subtle subject matter that lies beneath the water’s surface.” There is not a lot of time with plein air painting to ponder how one will go about approaching subjects, especially under the mercurial lighting conditions of twilight. “The special challenges for me are capturing a moment in time with the most efficient economy of means, making each brushstroke count in the overall composition,” he said.

His experience has led him full circle to an age-old artistic truism.

“There is often a difficult point as you near the completion of a painting when you have to decide how much is enough,” he said. “Often times, less is more.”