Spirit of the Wood

 
 

"I have always loved and been part of the West," says Nielson. 


Larry mainly concentrates on painting portraits of Native Americans, Wildlife, and Western themes. 

 

Nielson's earliest works on wood were usually about Native Americans.  The Native American images were a perfect match for the authentic weather-beaten wood canvas. 


Larry Nielson uses rough, weathered wood as his canvas.  The painting is often composed of dark colors and the natural tones he uses are subtle – they become seemingly part of the wood itself.  Wood stains and acrylics transform old wood planks into images that reach deep into the wood for vision, and into the spectator for a response.  The faces and images do not appear to have been painted onto the wood at all; rather they grow out of it from a mysterious inner realm. 

 


 

Larry Nielson as He Views his art

"The wood tells me what to do with it, it is like it has its own spirit," says Nielsen, an artist who has become known for his paintings on old and weathered wood.


"Every piece of wood is a challenge, a different experience. Sometimes, I see a piece of wood and there is an immediate connection, I know just what it wants me to do with it.


Other times, I have to put a piece away for a while, then bring it back out later and I will see something special in it, a face or something, that needs to come out. It is very personal."

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