Princess on the Prairie

This piece was inspired by my Kansas home.  The prairie princess clutches a loaf of bread in her arms, and is surrounded by a field of wheat and sunflowers. At her feet sits a jack rabbit, which were very plentiful in my childhood. In fact, I had one named Peter as a pet.

I began the sketch right on the canvas.

The painted the background around her in golds, yellows, and browns. Over that I did some reverse painting in a chalky mint, leaving the golds to be the sunflowers and wheat heads.

I tried out a few different skirts before settling on what I wanted.

After I settled on using some paper that I had printed recently, I made some more paper to add more wheat heads.  I used white tissue paper which is really flimsy and fragile until it gets some paint on it.  Then it makes wonderful paper to collage with!

Then it was time to focus on the details.  Collage work, the corner of a linen napkin, dip pen and gold ink….

I think it would be kind of fun to do this with all of the states… What would represent your state?

The original 15 x 30 inch canvas can be found at Tessera Fine Art Gallery in Wichita.  Call (316) 262-2435.  

For a print, find them in my etsy shop here!