2005-'17, paintings

In a vernacular reminiscent of art brut and the outsider art of self-taught naïve artists, John Randall Nelson explores a vocabulary of words, patterns, and archetypal forms. His paintings often consist of a central image painted over words or symbols. Motifs such as trees, polka dots, and raindrops appear time and again. His imagery has a simplicity about it, but he works and reworks his compositions into a thick impasto and they become the record of an obsessive art-making process. 

Michael Abatemarco, Pasatiempo Magazine, 2020.