In the 1970s I was a academic studying the work of Willa Cather, the American novelist who is now recognized as a major author . Now in the 2020s I am a painter. Always captivated by Cather’s descriptive power, I finally decided to create paintings inspired by her work. Sometimes the mood of a novel and sometimes a descriptive phrase prompted my work.
The first solo exhibit of paintings, Memories in Light and Shadow: Paintings Inspired by the Work and Life of Willa Cather, was shown at the National Willa Cather Center (NWCC) in Red Cloud, Nebraska from May 1 through June 30, 2021 as part of NWCC’s 66th Annual Spring Conference. Three of the paintings–Copper Grasses, The Red Scarf, and Willa--were sold. I donated Tallgrass Prairie to the Center. Since the first exhibit I completed five new paintings–a second portrait, Willa Cather Memorial Prairie, Prairie Guests, Prairie Old Timer, and Light and Silence, inspired by My Mortal Enemy. These new paintings were part of the second solo exhibit of Memories in Light and Shadow at the North Shore Art League in Winnetka, IL exhibited in 2022. The second portrait based on a professional photograph of Cather by W. W. Wilson was also sold.
Prairie Old Timer and the latest painting Clouds of Golden Coreopsis are on exhibit at the 68th Annual Willa Cather Spring Conference in Red Cloud. The title and work is drawn directly from Cather’s evocative essay “Nebraska: The End of the First Cycle.” Here she wrote movingly:
The grass was full of quail and prairie chickens, and flocks of wild ducks swam about on the lagoons. . . . Freighters [caravans bringing supplies to Colorado] could recognize the lagoons from afar by the clouds of golden coreopsis which grew up out of the water and waved delicately above its surface.
