337 Oats

The linocut was drawn and printed in 1977.
250 copies were printed and sell for $100.00 each.

486 Rattlesnake Grass

Briza maxima. Drawn at the Heritage House in Mendocino County on 9 July 1980. Roger Grounds, in his excellent book Ornamental Grasses, lists 15 common names for this plant, which to me indicates a very widespread awareness of this lovely grass. —Henry Evans
250 copies were printed and sell for $100.00 each.

338 Oats

The linocut was drawn and printed in 1977. For many, the wild oat symbolizes nature in its relaxed and most unaffected state. It is one of my favorite subjects and has been from the very earliest years in my printmaking experience. —Henry Evans
250 copies were printed and sell for $100.00 each.

310 Grass

Bromus mollis. Collected on Pinnacle Peak Road in Napa on 16 May 1976 and drawn in the studio on Sutter Street in San Francisco. I never tire of admiring the persistence, luxuriance and abundance of these infinitely frail creatures whose strength and endurance and beauty are so hard to describe. —Henry Evans
150 copies were printed and sell for $100.00 each.

473 Black Bamboo

Phyllostachys nigra. Drawn at home in the Napa Valley from a plant in our garden. Bamboo probably has more written about it than any other kind of grass. A great impetus has been given to the collecting and cultivation of bamboo by the American Bamboo Society, whose publications are not only informative but very interesting as well. My own interest in bamboo is one of may years standing, and my collection of plants now includes some rare and exotic species. —Henry Evans
350 copies were printed and sell for $50 each.

571 Foxtails

Alopecurus species The drawing was made in front of our lawnless house in St. Helena, California. Munz lists eight species of this wondrous weed, the bane of cats and dogs and woolly socks. The genus name is derived from two Greek words: Alopex (meaning fox), and oura (meaning tail). Albert Spear Hitchcock (1865-1935) compiled a Manual of the Grasses of the United States, which was revised by Agnes Chase and published by the Department of Agriculture in 1964 as Miscellaneous Publication 200. It is, in my opinion, one of the great botanical books of our time. Not only does it show and tell about foxtails but, in its 1051 pages, there are myriad facts about, and 1199 illustrations of, all the grasses that have been found in the United States. For anyone with a special interest in grasses, this book is essential. —Henry Evans
130 copies were printed and sell for $50 each.

525 Grass

The drawing was made from some grass growing wild near our home in the Napa Valley. There are parts of our property that we devote to gardening, and very soon in this process a crisis arises: do you pull out the wild things that infringe on the growing space you have given to persimmons, rhubarb, tomatoes, figs, raspberries, currants, and the like? Being a very eccentric gardener, I don't pull out the wild things except in extremis. I theorize that there should be room for all of us. I let everything grow until something that I have planted is being choked out—then, even the natives will be pulled! —Henry Evans
224 copies were printed and sell for $50 each.

536 Grass

An unidentified grass drawn at Fallon, Nevada, in the summer garden of Susan and Rod McCormick. I was taken with its form and with the visual dilemma it seems to represent: extremely tender fresh green leaves forming a very angular pattern. Where are the lilting curves we usually see in the new leaves of grass? Nature is truly prodigal in its unending variety of forms and moods. I suspect that, if I were to go back to Fallon in the fall, my angular friends would have become older, mellow, and voluptuously curved. —Henry Evans
150 copies were printed and sell for $50 each.

565 Dry Wild Oats

Avena species. Drawn at Point Lobos (near Monterey, California) in a fortuitous combination of circumstances. How wonderfully wild the water was, leaping and crashing against the rocks, while, just a few hundred yards back from the shore, this fragile bit of grass recalled the summer sun and the melodious calls of birds. On this windy winter day, aware of no man-made sounds, I saw the delicate forms of the oat, which suggested old age and antiquity. Back through the millions of years needed for its evolution, its cycle of growth and reproduction has been repeated countless times. It is widespread to the point of being common, and yet, like all forms of beauty, it is fresh and startling each time we come upon it. —Henry Evans
130 copies were printed and sell for $50 each.