The Long View: Prairie Paintings from Illinois Nature Preserves

June 9 - October 21, 2023

Illinois State Museum - Lockport Gallery

201 West 10th Street, Lockport, Illinois

42 of Philip’s paintings from 22 nature preserves across Illinois celebrate the 60-year legacy of the Illinois Nature Preserves Commission and offer a window into the past and present nature of the prairie state.

Related Events  |  Artist’s Statement  |  List of Preserves

Painting of bison at Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois by Philip Juras

Note: The Lockport exhibition of The Long View includes all of the key, larger paintings from the first iteration of The Long View exhibited at the ISM’s Dickson Mounds Museum in 2022. Many of the smaller field paintings from that 2022 show are being replaced by larger works, both loaned and newly created, that are more suitable for the expansive Lockport space.

The following paintings are organized by size. About a half dozen new works will be added here by the opening date.

Foley Sand Prairie

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Lee County, Illinois
2019

Oil on canvas 36 x 60 in. (91.4 x 152.4 cm)
Private collection

Winter Evening

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Sand Prairie-Scrub Oak Nature Preserve, Mason County, Illinois
2019

Oil on canvas 36 x 60 in. (91.4 x 152.4 cm)
Available

Sunrise

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
2019

Oil on canvas 36 x 54 in. (91.4 x 137.2 cm)
Private collection

Beadles Barrens

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Edwards County, Illinois
2022

Oil on canvas 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm)
Available

Beaver Pond

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
2019

Oil on canvas 30 x 54 in. (76.2 x 137.2 cm)
Private collection

Fults Hill Prairie

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Monroe County, Illinois
2019

Oil on canvas 30 x 48 in. (76.2 x 121.9 cm)
Private collection

Pembroke Savanna

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Kankakee County, Illinois
2019

Oil on canvas 30 x 48 in. (76.2 x 121.9 cm)
Private collection

Nachusa Bison, June

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
2022

Oil on canvas 24 x 48 in. (61 x 121.9 cm)
Available

Shoe Factory Road Prairie

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Cook County, Illinois
2022

Oil on canvas 24 x 48 in. (61 x 121.9 cm)
Private collection

Cave Creek Glade Preserve

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Johnson County, Illinois
2020

Oil on canvas 24 x 36 in. (61 x 91.4 cm)
Private collection

Spring Creek Valley c. 1833

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Spring Lake Preserve, Cook County, Illinois
2020

Oil on canvas 24 x 36 in. (61 x 91.4 cm)
Private collection

Doug’s Knob, May

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
May 11, 2019 (Finished 2019)

Oil on canvas 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Private collection

Doug’s Knob, December

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
December 17, 2018 (Finished 2019)

Oil on canvas 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Private collection

Doug’s Knob, June

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
June 13, 2018

Oil on canvas 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Private collection

Doug’s Knob, October

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
October 20, 2017

Oil on canvas 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Available

Doug’s Knob, September

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
September 28, 2016

Oil on canvas 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Private collection

Doug’s Knob, July

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
July 28, 2015

Oil on canvas 18 x 26 in. (45.7 x 66 cm)
Private collection

Goat Prairie

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Hanover Bluff State Natural Area, Jo Daviess County, Illinois
September 30, 2016

Oil on canvas 12.25 x 18 in. (31.1 x 45.7 cm)
Private collection

Prairie Dock Sunset

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Gensburg-Markham Prairie, Cook County, Illinois
2023

Oil on canvas 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
Artist's collection

Quiet Evening

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Goose Lake Prairie State Natural Area, Grundy County, Illinois
2023

Oil on canvas 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
Artist's collection

Loess Slopes

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Revis Hill Prairie, Mason County, Illinois
August 21, 2022

Oil on canvas 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
Available

Sunbury Railroad Prairie

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Livingston County, Illinois
2022

Oil on canvas 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
Private collection

Snow Shadow

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Henry Allan Gleason Nature Preserve, Mason County, Illinois
2022

Oil on canvas 16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
Private collection

Munson Township Cemetery Prairie

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Henry County, Illinois
2022

Oil on canvas 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
Private collection

Springbrook Prairie, Late Afternoon

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Dupage County, Illinois
June 15, 2018

Oil on canvas 12 x 16 in. (30.5 x 40.6 cm)
Private collection

Sand Prairie

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Illinois Beach State Park, Illinois
July 26, 2015

Oil on canvas 10 x 16 in. (25.4 x 40.6 cm)
Private collection

Combustion

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
March 26, 2019

Oil on canvas 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Private collection

Receding Flame Front

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
March 26, 2019

Oil on canvas 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Private collection

Winter Burn 1

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
December 18, 2018

Oil on canvas 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Private collection

Flame Front Departing

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
March 23, 2019

Oil on canvas 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Available

Building Black

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
March 25, 2019

Oil on canvas 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Available

Smoke Columns

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
March 25, 2019

Oil on canvas 9 x 12 in. (22.9 x 30.5 cm)
Private collection

August Flora

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Loda Cemetery Prairie, Iroquois County, Illinois
2022

Oil on hardboard 11 x 9 in. (27.9 x 22.9 cm)
Private collection

Fall Burn 2

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
November 15, 2018

Oil on canvas 9 x 11 in. (22.9 x 27.9 cm)
Private collection

Fall Burn 3

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
November 15, 2018

Oil on canvas 9 x 11 in. (22.9 x 27.9 cm)
Available

Flame Front Arriving

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Nachusa Grasslands, Illinois
March 23, 2019

Oil on canvas 9 x 11 in. (22.9 x 27.9 cm)
Private collection


Related events:

 


Artist’s Statement:

As an artist, I’m enthralled by tallgrass prairie. Its beauty, rich ecology, and fascinating history are the essential ingredients in what I believe makes a compelling landscape. As a nature lover, I can’t get enough of it. I find it moving to set foot in a true prairie remnant where I can ponder the profusion of flowers and grasses and imagine how the patch of prairie in front of me could once have covered millions of acres.

In 2013, after falling in love with several prairie remnants and restorations in the Chicago area, Illinois’s grasslands began calling to me. I was inspired to seek a wider view of the nearly extinct ecosystem that gave Illinois, my mother’s home state, its nickname the Prairie State. Over an eight-year period, on more than a dozen trips from my home in Athens, Georgia, I was able to explore and paint many of the sites that hold the last .01% of Illinois’ original prairie, culminating in my 2021 exhibit Picturing the Prairie at the Chicago Botanic Garden. Works from that exhibit plus several new pieces are featured here in a celebration of the conservation legacy of the Illinois Nature Preserve Commission. The commission was created by a far-sighted act of the state legislature in 1963 to “assist private and public landowners in protecting high quality natural areas and habitats of endangered and threatened species.” Since then, over 600 important ecological sites have been protected, providing refuge for hundreds of species of plants and animals, and offering Illinoisans, and visiting artists, a glimpse of Illinois’ landscape before European settlement. Over twenty of those preserves are in this exhibit.

The paintings range geographically from the shore of Lake Michigan to the southern end of the state. They illustrate the visual variety found in remnant prairies based on physical characteristics such as topography and soil, their management history, and the ephemeral qualities of weather and season. The larger canvases were painted in my studio while almost all the smaller works were painted on location, sometimes rather quickly. Together, they represent multiple aspects of the tallgrass landscape I’ve come to cherish. For example, as a southerner more accustomed to densely forested environments, I find the long views in prairies irresistible. I’m equally fascinated by the relationship between humans and nature that has made it possible for prairies to persist east of the Mississippi River. Modern Illinois prairies not only require protection from development and farming; they must also receive substantial human care to keep them from being choked by invasive plants or shaded out by trees. That stewardship continues a long history of human influence on this grassland ecosystem. For millennia, Indigenous people adapted Illinois’s landscapes to their advantage, favoring prairies over forest through their use of fire. After a long absence, fire is again being used as one of several tools for maintaining and restoring prairie remnants, something I’ve been fortunate to capture in my paintings. By re-embracing the traditional role of prairie stewards, we humans will ensure that the distant views over the profuse blooms of intact remnant prairies can be experienced long into the future.


Illinois Nature Preserves featured in the Exhibit

Map showing location of Illinois Nature Preserves painted by Philip Juras.

  1. Hanover Bluff, Jo Daviess County
  2. Munson Township Cemetery Prairie, Henry County
  3. Foley Sand Prairie, Lee County 
  4. Nachusa Grasslands, Lee County
  5. Illinois Beach State Park, Lake County
  6. Somme Prairie Grove, Cook County
  7. Shoe Factory Road Prairie, Cook County
  8. Lockport Prairie, Will County
  9. Goose Lake Prairie, Grundy County
  10. Sunbury Railroad Prairie, Livingston County
  11. Pembroke Savanna, Kankakee County
  12. Loda Cemetery Prairie, Iroquois County
  13. Henry Allan Gleason Preserve, Mason County
  14. Sand Prairie-Scrub Oak Preserve, Mason County
  15. Revis Hill Prairie, Mason County
  16. Fults Hill Prairie, Monroe County
  17. Beadles Barrens, Edwards County
  18. Cave Creek Glade, Johnson County

Note: These preserves will be added before the exhibit opens.
Ayer’s Sand Prairie, Carroll County
Gensburg-Markham Prairie, Cook County
Prospect Cemetery Prairie, Ford County
Springbrook Prairie, Du Page County