Big Flowage 1979

Neil Welliver made this large square painting, Big Flowage, with confident brushstrokes. It's a scene of water, trees, and clouds—a landscape built from blues, greens, and whites. I can imagine Welliver standing before the canvas, wrestling with the bigness of it all, trying to capture the fleeting light on water and sky. He probably mixed his colors right there, building up layers of paint to find the right tone. Look how the clouds are both solid and ephemeral, rendered with these chunky dabs of white, and the water reflects the sky in broken strokes of blue and gray. That horizontal line of trees on the horizon, it feels like a grounding force, holding the whole composition in place. You can see Welliver sharing a kinship with other landscape painters like Fairfield Porter. They’re all in conversation, trying to capture the essence of a place. What a conversation to be part of! Because painting, you know, it’s about that ongoing exchange, taking what you see and feel and turning it into something new.