The Prairie Series continues...

"The Red Hill" - acrylic gouache on panel, 16 x 20

This is a hill of Big Bluestem, one of the tallest of the tallgrass prairie grasses. It can grow to 10 feet! In autumn it turns the most luscious wine-red. I came upon this hill after making the turn in the road shown in the painting below.

More from the Prairies

"After the Storm" - acrylic gouache on panel, 12 x 16

As part of my growing fascination with prairies, I traveled to Oregon, Illinois, last month to visit Nachusa Grasslands, an example of tallgrass prairie, a 2800 acre plant community of really big (some are 10 ft. tall!) grasses and wildflowers dating back to the Ice Age. In the mid-1890's most of America's prairies were turned into farms, bringing this unique ecosystem almost to extinction. Organizations like the Nature Conservancy are restoring many grassland remnants, and this is one of the best examples in the Midwest.

I thought it might be helpful to students who take my classes and to people who collect my work to see how I go about making a painting, so, for this painting, I photographed steps in my painting process. See them in the post below.