As part of my role as a teaching artist in the Midwest Artist Studios project, I had to provide an illustrated step-by-step description of creating a painting. Project founder Frank Juarez collects such descriptions from each artist and writes a curriculum around them to share with high school art teachers throughout the region. In our conversations, I discussed the importance of prairies and fostering a love for terrain and native plants in this distinctive regional landscape. I also talked about finding inspiration in your surroundings. My studio is in an old warehouse district of Omaha where native plants sometimes take root in empty lots and along chain-link fences. At this time of year, the sun creates blazes of color on the brick buildings late in the afternoon, and this painting is inspired by the view right out my studio window. Below are a few of the images of the painting as it progressed.

detail shot of painting in progress to show pattern achieved after pressing textured paper into the surface

scraping with a utility knife to reveal underlying colors