This is an imagined view of an historic southeastern Piedmont grassland, inspired by my long-time interest in the subject but also informed by my recent paintings of Midwestern tallgrass prairies and savannas.
I began sketching this particular idea of an oaky savanna a month ago on sheets of newsprint, deciding eventually that I needed a larger, wider sheet of paper so I could more fully explore a world I so often inhabit in my imagination. While I aimed to accurately convey the botanical and aesthetic qualities of a grassland/woodland ecotone maintained by near annual burning, I also wanted to arrange the landscape to satisfy my imagination’s wanderings. I would, for instance, love to be able to walk up to the granite boulder beneath the pair of oaks on the crest of the hill and consider its qualities as a picnic site. Along the way I would look into the shady woods on my right for signs of animals (there is one minimally suggested near the middle of the picture) while to my left I would scan for prairie flowers. It would be like travelling with William Bartram in the 1770s or with the Creeks, Cherokees, or other peoples who once maintained these forgotten grasslands.
I imagine it here to be early in the growing season, perhaps May, so that’s why the grasses and forbs are still fairly short, but it is late enough for the oaks and hickories to have fully leafed out. Some of the oaks sprouting among the grasses could have root masses that are as old as the mature trees standing nearby, but fire keep them pruned. By the way, in case it’s not obvious, post oaks are my favorite tree.
