"The Crossing" Painting

A fellow who ran into a burning New York barn only to discover the livestock found their own way out; unintentionally sprang his girlfriend from solitary in a Maine county jail; raced cars ingloriously at Moroso and Lime Rock; awoke in a remote Burmese pagoda just as dawn lit the face of a towering, road-movie Buddha who'd also been sitting there in the dark; owned the '27 Buick Phaeton in which Sir Lawrence traversed Arabian sands, and stole through the night to stand alone in Emerson's garden, aboard the USS Constellation, on Burnside Bridge, and -- most memorably -- in the theater box where Lincoln was shot.

As a fledgling artist, Wellikoff was awarded for excellence by a juried panel at the Maryland State Fair. His first serious painting portrayed his late father-in-law -- a WWII naval aviator -- standing before his Avenger bomber. Using fat oils over a leaner layer of water-soluble ones prior to varnishing, Wellikoff's boards and canvases portray whatever strikes his fancy for its aesthetic, cultural and/or historic(al) import. His work, which won two Silver Awards from Redditt, has been sold here on Saatchi and through galleries in Maryland and Florida.

Recently completed: "Banjo Picker," oil-on-canvas