Across the Lake

The Ruth and Seymour Landfield Atrium

John Nellermoe’s lake paintings intersect realism and abstraction with reverence to his environment and playful respect to the picture plane. Through dissecting the plane into strips of land, water and sky while pushing and pulling space, Nellermoe’s work simultaneously disorients and calms. They are also biographical—a reference to the artist’s retirement from a teaching career that spanned 45 years, including appointments in Oregon, Minnesota, Iowa, and three decades at Texas Lutheran University.

John Nellermoe earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota) in 1965. Following his time in the Red River Valley, he went on to gain a Master of Arts degree from Wisconsin State University—Superior in 1970. He has had the opportunity to work and study with internationally recognized artists like Sam Scott, Judith Pfaff, Wayne Thiebaud, Millard Sheets, Paul Soldner, and Marguerite Wildenhain. He now resides in Medina, Minnesota, painting full-time from his studio on Holy Name Lake.

Plains Art Museum thanks our generous PlainsArt4All members and donors, and our Organizational Partners for their support. Additional support provided by The McKnight Foundation, Bush Foundation, The Arts Partnership, The FUNd at Plains Art Museum, and the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funds from the North Dakota Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.

1: John Nellermoe, Winter Lake Shadows, 2019, Oil on Canvas, 48 x 48 in., Courtesy of the artist • 2: John Nellermoe, Red Sky at Dusk, 2021, Oil on Canvas 48” x 48” in. Courtesy of the artist