"Bigelow Cemetery Prairie, July"

Awarded 3rd Place at the Ohio Plein Air Society's All-Member Exhibition: "Ohio Prairies: a year in the life".

Springfield Museum on Art, Springfield, OH

• Opening December 6, 2014 - 5:30 - 7:30 PM.

I visited the Bigelow Prairie Pioneer Cemetery 4 times during a year of painting in Ohio's prairies. Bigelow Cemetery is a remnant of the tall grass prairie that once covered the vast Darby Plains, west of Columbus, OH. My first visit was in December 2013 when it was covered in snow; January 2014, snow; in April, about two weeks after the controlled burn, the charred stems were surrounded by about 4" of new growth. In July, it was a riot of flowers and colors, so thick that you had to search for the paths. Most of the tombstones were hidden deep in the flowers that stood between 4 and 10 feet tall. I was stunned. My 14 year old granddaughter was with me. We spent an hour or more navigating the cemetery, through the tall flowers. We went back the next morning. She napped in the car while I painted this study for the Ohio Plein Air Society's "Year in the Life of a Prairie Exhibiton" at the Springfield Museum of Art.

The flowers: yellow gray-headed Coneflower (Ratibida pinnata), purple Monarda (beebalm), red Royal Catchfly (Silene regia), and the tall stalks are the 10' tall Prairie Dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum)! This prairie site is filled with endangered species, protected by the fact that it was a cemetery, and nutured by the Park Service and gentle visitors.