Clifftop Verdure

As in my previous year’s visit, I found that the cliff-edge perspective best conveyed the dramatic aspects of Fults Hill Prairie Nature Preserve. In this view, the blooms of pale beard tongue, rose vervain, and columbine appear among the spring foliage of the steep loess hill prairie. Cedars cling to the edge of the limestone cliff where they can, for the most part, escape the prescribed fires that maintain this hill prairie. Spring flooding along the Mississippi River has inundated Kidd Lake below.

Painted on location. Touched up in the studio.