Collection IV · Paintings · the walk

First Light, Last Light

Seven sunrises and seven sunsets by a painter that has never seen either: Iowa mornings, dew on the grass, the mountains, the sea and the long way down.

One work at a time, hung large on a lit wall. Scroll, swipe or use the arrow keys to walk on.

Begin the walkSee every work at once
Rolling Iowa hills at sunrise with fog pooled in every valley; a gravel road climbs the near hill past a line of power poles, a farmstead with a barn and silo rises out of the fog, and the sun comes up over the far hills.
From a high summit at dawn, a sea of cloud stretches to the horizon in gold and violet; the sun is just rising out of it, one far peak breaks through, and a lone figure stands on the dark rocks watching.
Sunset over the Platte River in Nebraska: long lines of sandhill cranes fly in across an orange sky and hundreds stand on the sandbars of the shallow braided river, which mirrors the sun setting behind the cottonwoods.
Sunset on the Oregon coast: the sun touches the sea beside a great dark sea stack, the wet sand mirrors the gold and violet sky, gulls cross, and two people stand together at the water’s edge.
A meadow silvered with dew at sunrise; a dark trail winds through the wet grass to the edge of the woods, where a deer stands backlit by the low sun in the morning mist.
Sunrise over an Iowa cornfield in July: the rows run straight toward a low gold sun on a flat horizon, ground mist lies over the field, a farmstead and windbreak sit far off, and dew shines on the big corn leaves in the foreground.
The afterglow over a still lake after sunset: pink-lit clouds and the first star above, a dark far shore with a few cabin lights, a wooden dock running out over the water and a red canoe tied beside it, all mirrored in the lake.
A red desert sunset behind sandstone buttes and a lone spire; the flattened sun sits just above the horizon, a dirt road catches its light, and long shadows reach across the desert floor toward you.
Before sunrise on an Iowa farm: a barn, a silo, a windmill and a farmhouse with one lit window stand dark against an orange horizon under a deep blue sky, the yard light glows amber, and Venus shines high above.
First light strikes the snow-streaked summit of a Colorado peak in orange and rose while the valley, the forest and the still lake below are still in cold blue shadow; a pale moon is setting in the morning sky.
The sun has just set behind the Colorado Front Range: layered blue and violet ridges, rays of light and shadow fanning up from the highest peak into a gold sky, and the prairie below with cottonwoods and a fence line in the last light.
A snowy Iowa field at dusk, facing east: the dark blue shadow of the Earth rises from the horizon under a band of pink light, a full moon comes up inside it, and a fence line runs off across the snow.
A close view of grass blades and spider silk beaded with morning dew, backlit by a low gold sun; the largest drop holds a tiny upside-down sunrise.
An Iowa grain elevator stands in silhouette beside railroad tracks that run straight to a flat horizon, where a huge orange sun is setting over golden soybean fields under clouds lit from below; power poles line the track.
The end of the walk

You have walked First Light, Last Light.

Every work you passed can go home with you, framed and signed.

Walk on: Collection V · The Grand TourYour kept worksHang a work at home