“Pleasant Ridge ~ Towhee and Wood Violets,” copyright Susan A. Walton, S. A. Walton Studio, Hudson, Florida.

This painting is a work in progress, an intimate look at a little hollow in a hilly park in southern Illinois that I used to frequent. The park, on the site of what was once the farm of my dear friend Larry Kinsella’s family, a family of early pioneers who settled in the area, is called Pleasant Ridge, and they generously gifted this beautiful land on the bluffs to the public on condition that the meadows and forest of the bluff site, overlooking the Mississippi floodplain known as the American Bottoms, and the family’s two story log cabin, would be preserved for future generations. The Kinsella family settled here many years ago before the state of Illinois was created, about the time some of my ancestors settled further south near what is now the Shawnee National Forest.

I took my mother there for spring nature hikes to take reference photos and to chat while watching birds. My mother was as much a history buff as I was, and we had met the Kinsellas while volunteering at a local museum, a World Heritage Site down on the bottoms, where Larry, an amateur archaeologist, has been a feature for decades. It is a little strange to know that our two families were here around the time when Lewis and Clark had set out to explore the Louisiana Purchase, the eastern edge of which lay across the river from here.

But I digress. The painting features a towhee (and perhaps soon his mate) with a collection of plants common in the region, such as the beautiful Wood Violet, the mysterious Mayapple, and the exotic-looking Preacher-in-Pulpit. I hope you enjoy it.

#Art #Originals #Towhees