Study Texture Landscape

In the years following World War II, Cady Wells explored new techniques to speak to the uncertainty of the Atomic Age. He developed a new feeling for texture in his work that resembled textiles, wood grain, and stained glass. Wells applied successive layers of watercolor and then blotted or scraped away top layers to create the murky colors and intricate textures in studies such as this. His addition of the biomorphic mass in the foreground and a vaguely geometric pattern in the background provides a sense of structure to the composition.