Grasslands in gouache

"Bear Mountain Road" - acrylic gouache on panel, 12 x 16

Here's another grassland scene, from a trip we took to New Mexico several years ago. I love the way the low afternoon light turned the autumn grasses into spun gold. The medium I used here is acrylic gouache, which is sort of a mix between acrylic paint and gouache, a kind of opaque watercolor. Next to watercolor, this may be my favorite kind of paint. For more details about this paint, check out my description here.

More grasslands

"Toward Laramie," Wyoming - watercolor on panel, 12 x 16

"Autumn in the Tallgrass," Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, Iowa - watercolor on panel, 12 x 16

"Prairie Poem," Big Prairie, Montana - gouache on panel

Our Colorado vacation really got me pumped about grasslands. I find the rolling hills of sensuously waving grass to be extremely beautiful. Did you know that only about 1% of the original grasslands -- from the Tallgrass prairies of Illinois, Iowa and Kansas to the Shortgrass of the Great Plains states -- still remain as they were after the Ice Age? Efforts are being made to restore prairie grasses and the richly diverse ecosystem they offer, and I plan to visit as many restored grassland preserves as I can.

Memories of Colorado

My husband and I spent a week along Colorado's Front Range in July, checking it out for retirement. Here are two watercolors of Soapstone Prairie, a 28-square mile Natural Area just north of Fort Collins. Enormous sky, brilliant sun, wild wind, soaring raptors and gazillions of wildflowers -- my kind of place!