A plein air painting series celebrating the Driftless region of Southwest Wisconsin.

The innate, pastoral perfection, that is everywhere in this area, compelled me to sit down and begin capturing the local scenes that I have fallen so hard for. 

The series' title came from the region's namesake: Driftless Wisconsin, as well as the general time frame I spend on each piece. Because most of these pieces were painted near the end of the day, the light shifts incredibly fast. One of the challenges of plein air painting capturing the light and shadows in front of me, in the moment. There's no retouching in the studio. No taking a photo to paint from later - it's to quickly map out the scene in front of me for approximately 60-90 minutes to capture this specific moment in time, where the shadows and light will never again be exactly the same again.

My goal in this series is to to capture not only the light and shadows and colors, but the FEELING that summer in the midwest evokes. The heat. The humidity. The cicadas calling. The rustling grass waving. The history attached to the old farmsteads.

Enjoy!