Nelson graduated in 1969 with a bachelor of fine art degree from Syracuse University, where he was awarded the Augusta Hazard-Hiram Gee Fellowship in Studio Arts, which allowed him to spend a semester touring the museums of Europe.

He went on enroll in a master's degree program at Arizona State University on a scholarship and taught there for a year.

He earned an honorable mention at the first Four Corners Biennial in 1971, then left just short of completing his degree to be near his ailing father in Buffalo. Over the next few years, his work appeared in one and two-man shows at galleries in Buffalo and Rochester. One of his large airbrush acrylic skyscape paintings won the James Carey Evans Memorial Award at the 1974 Western New York Exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two sons. A celebration of his life will be private.