Portfolio > Landscapes, Cityscapes, Interiors

Abstract Landscape of sea grass by Savannah artist Joel Barr
Tall Grass
Oil on Canvas
20" x 60"

*SOLD*

When you live near marshes or prairies, you learn to love tall grasses for their subtle shades, constant movement, seasonal color shifts, and tidal adjustments. For me, every look offers up a surprise. Some of these fields of grass stretch out for miles, raising question after question about what creatures live in them, and what is beyond each expanse.

This painting was generated by a desire to see closeup, very closeup, the marshes near my home in Savannah, Georgia. If you crouch to view the grass at ground level, each blade is tall, and each blade is unique. Depending on the season and your location, they may be any of a thousand mixes of greens, soft browns, and what seems to be the occasional orange, gold, yellow, red, or purple. It's an eye feast, and I tried to capture that feeling here.

If I could paint sound, you would hear the wind, finding its way with its great purpose, whispering through the marshes and finding every blade of tall grass. The grasses must hear the wind because they are always dancing - unpredictably but with their own mysterious choreography.

I like this piece for its honoring of place and because, from a painter's standpoint, it offers up one of nature's best abstracts.