As I make my photographic journeys through the great grasslands of North Dakota, I am drawn to certain familiar buttes and grassy slopes time and again. This is a landscape that I have photographed before, but the colors were more autumnal and more of the foreground was included in that version. It would be fun [...]
I spent yesterday in the great grasslands of North Dakota, and it was a glorious reunion with the country I love so much. The hills were getting greener, and there were some Mayflowers in bloom. A little cluster of crocuses greeted me at the Burning Coal Vein parking lot. One of the reasons for the tour [...]
I worked a little more on my pastel pencil drawing “Badlands Grandeur” this morning. The North Dakota I know and love is undergoing some drastic changes. There is a scoria mine on the very north edge of Bowman, right behind people’s houses, and its pinkish brown dust has been blowing into our yards, covering the [...]
I love the sloping lines of the North Dakota grassland country, whether they are bright green, rust and gold, or white with snow. My drawings so far have been mainly of the summer and autumn seasons, so I’d like to expand my body of work to include the whole spectrum of prairie color.
To me, the landscape of the North Dakota prairies and badlands along the East River Road is one of utter perfection. Legions of landscape designers could not have come up with anything nearly this stunning.
September is probably my favorite time of year, with its moderate but warm temperatures, and the changing colors of the prairie landscape. Here’s another autumn view from the East River Road in the great grasslands of North Dakota near Bullion Butte.
I’ve made countless trips up and down the glorious East River Road between Amidon and Medora, and have learned where to slow down and look for possible grassland compositions; a creek here, a line of trees there, a patch of blue grama grass there, a curve in the scoria road somewhere, Bullion Butte and the Little [...]
This is another view from the East River Road in September. Autumn on the prairie is more subtle than autumn in the woodlands, but if you are observant, you’ll see that almost everything is contributing to a new, warm palette. The little bluestem grass, the green ash trees, the buffaloberry bushes, the rabbitbrush, the sagebrush, [...]
Here’s a photograph of the hills at the Burning Coal Vein area northwest of Amidon back in September. I wish the autumn colors would last longer.
I’m going back over my September files of the North Dakota grasslands and seeing what might work for drawings.
Self-portrait with "Sunwondrous" on May 10, 2013.
Self-portrait, January 21, 2012.
Bowman, North Dakota.
Self-portrait with "Sunlove" in April, 2013.
In the Studio with 30x40" Drawings, May 2, 2013.
Self-portrait on April 30, 2013.
"Badlands Grandeur" will be part of an encore exhibit of "Cowboys and Indians" at the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora during the summer of 2013.
At "Cowboys and Indians" exhibit in Medora, 2012.
“Dakota Grasslands Dream” won the Best of Show award at the 42nd Annual Badlands Art Show in Dickinson in 2012.
"Deep Pink Dakota Dream" was part of the 37th Annual Invitational Art Auction & Fundraiser in 2012.
At the Custer County Art & Heritage Center, Miles City, Montana, August of 2012.
At Bismarck Art & Galleries Association on January 4, 2013.
Self-portrait at the Burning Coal Vein on May 31, 2012.
Little Missouri National Grassland and Surrounding Region.
Near the Burning Coal Vein on September 18, 2012.
The Landscape between Bowman and Miles City.
Near the Powder River on September 29, 2012.
