Artist: Susan Poitras

Prairie View V is the fifth in a series of open prairie landscapes created by Susan Poitras to show the vast expanse of the prairie and play with the juxtaposition of land and sky. Poitras usually works from a photo, and for many years she used an old Pentax K1000 camera to shoot pictures out of a car window as her husband drove.

This work is a large oil on canvas and was painted in October 1989.

Poitras was interested in art from grade school and was taught by a great aunt who she described as very patient with her. She later studied art in college, first at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and then at Montana State University. In later years, the Fargo artist began working with colored pencils as well as oil paint.