Adams Homestead & Nature Preserve
Happy New Year! I’ve been hard at work painting a painted turtle; it was a beast to draw and quite demanding to paint as well because of all of the pattern and detail.
I met this baby painted turtle (Chrysemys picta) while biking the Adams Homestead and Nature Preserve - I felt very lucky to have spotted its dollar-coin-sized stature along the trail!
This is Velocity, acrylic on basswood panel, 14x14x1.5”, 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic shut gyms down and canceled artist residencies, so I’ve been attempting to combine alternatives for both by visiting the Adams Homestead & Nature Preserve! It’s located in South Dakota, but given that I live on the tri-state border it’s only about twenty minutes away. There’s a beautiful gravel trail with two joined loops - the River Loop is longer and is a prairie/farmland/forest ride with peeks at the Missouri River, and then the Lake Loop is shorter and combines prairie and beautiful shallow wetlands. Connecting the two is Cottonwood Crossing, which is also prairie/forest but seems to be the prime deer-spotting segment as well.
I’m still in the planning and reference imagery gathering phase, but it’s been a great time. Though I need to find a better way to deter the biting flies that have recently appeared…
