624.Flower Series in WatercolorThis is a series of small watercolor and gouache paintings based on photographs taken by my mother in mid-twentieth century. Mom would typically write the common name and the scientific name on each slide. I now have possession of most of her slides and recently decided to do small paintings of them in order to preserve the archival quality of her photography, as no color photograph is truly archival. Her knowledge of plains states wildflowers and their locations resulted in the Nature Conservancy purchasing the Keller ranch in the Nebraska Sandhills. The ranch is adjacent to the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge and is now a part of the U.S. Game & Fish. Uncle Bill had acquired the ranch in 1908, through the Kinkaid Act of 1904, an extension of the Homestead Act. I grew up frequently visiting the ranch to ride horses, explore, or play in the big sandpit that would eventually be the object of the Nature Conservancy purchase of the ranch.
