Wetlands and Prairie Potholes

I've been off the studio clock for a few weeks because of other duties, etc., but did manage to work on a small landscape study that I had in my back burner for a few years.

The spot is Jemmerson Slough, which is an area I frequented a lot during the late 80's and through the 90's. This is part of the prairie pothole region that used to be so prevalent here in NW Iowa before the 1900's. The potholes were drained and farmed over, just like the rest of the prairie was turned with the plow during the last half of the 19th century.

Jemmerson Slough - Summer Morning
6X9" Prismacolor

I tried using Prismacolor color pencils for this study...the foreground is in shadow, while the rest is in summer morning light. I'm not as happy as I'd hoped to be with the cat-tail rushes in the foreground. I seemed to find myself in an exercise of futility "making" individual rushes instead of rendering the effect or impression of a solid stand of them. It's just not as fun ...like drawing blades of grass in Kindergarten class or something. But I think the study has some possibilities as a larger work down the road in oils (?).