Read this Wildlife Art Journal article

By Todd Wilkinson


“You seldom regret what you don’t say when you refrain from adding another brushstroke.”

John Felsing’s savored part of the day is night, and by every indication he has grown ever more crepuscular and economical in his habits of seeing. When the sun melts away from the rural Midwest, Felsing has a penchant for wandering alone into the forests and glens, whether in 100 percent humidity or 40 below temperatures, adhering to the words of poet Emily Dickinson: “The landscape listens and we hear it call our own name.”

How many artists go seeking their sentient connection to surroundings in pitched deepening blackness when most of their neighbors are asleep?



Aurora | Oil on Linen | 17 x 15 inches


Even in his pursuit, there is nothing eerily noir or supernaturally foreboding about Felsing’s motivation. Praised for his originality as a maturing American Impressionist, one of his distinguishing métiers is painting modern nocturnes.

For a long time, the moniker of place summoning Felsing has been his native Michigan countryside, evoking universal yearnings for the viewer; though stirring inside of him is a new entreat, this one emanating from the American West.  Felsing is developing a new series of works inspired by the geothermal phenomena of Yellowstone—rainbow-pastelly hot springs, geyser eruptions, and ethereal mists.
 
“His approach to landscape is emotional and intuitive and his improvisational process often leads him to unexpected places,” says Maria Hajic, Felsing’s...