It’s hard to overstate how beautiful a prescribed fire can be at night as it slowly creeps and crackles through a well managed longleaf pine woods. When I received an unlikely challenge to combine two paintings I had done in past years, a study of a longleaf pine woods and a studio canvas of a historic night fire on the Illinois prairie (see below), I realized it was time to explore this beautiful phenomenon on a larger canvas. I added a third reference painting to the mix, a night burn study from an old growth longleaf tract in Thomasville, Georgia, which I felt was already very close to answering the challenge. After a preparatory charcoal drawing to consider the feel and composition of the flatwoods scene I had in my mind, I let the paint guide me to this final view on canvas. Now I just want to get back out on a night burn to soak in the quiet beauty all over again.
