By Justus Flair
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Accumulating so much stuff took time.

Crumpled paint tubes are strewn across a wooden table. Dried flakes of red, black, and green cover the edges of caps not quite shut tight. Brushes — short, tall, clean and crisp, dingy and stained — are littered over every surface, some forgotten on the floor.

Stark white walls peek out behind canvases large as desks, others small as a book. The sliding glass doors remain uncovered, the setting sun drawing attention to different paintings as the light slides across each one in turn.

Taking it all in, right hand tucked into the pocket of her purple-flowered dress, is Cathmar Prange.

Prange has lived here in Riverside, Iowa, for 32 years. Well, technically the 87-year-old lives in the house a few feet away; but most of her time has been spent in this shed-turned-studio.

She won’t have a 33rd year here. Next month she will move to Oaknoll Retirement Community in Iowa City, saying goodbye to her home, studio, and paintings. But the transition does not appear to upset her. Prange has been on her own for a while, having decided at 50 to leave her husband and devote herself to work and art.

All her pieces will be sold during her open studio 3-6 p.m. Saturday at 406 E. Third St. in Riverside.

She’s always preferred to paint large, she said, using her space to showcase the details of each flower petal and seed. Flowers are her go-to subject. She photographs any eye-catching blooms, then paints from the pictures.

Fellow artists have compared her to Georgia O’Keefe, though she’s not completely convinced; O’Keefe was only after the essence of a subject, Prange said, while she paints remarkably realistic images. The essence is there, though, blended in with each stroke of her brush.

But now, she’s prepared to leave them all. Prange doesn’t plan to keep a single piece of her work. Her children and grandchildren do, but she won’t take any to Oaknoll. She’s not sad to give up her art. Painting isn’t her only love; she’s also a dancer and a poet.

In Oaknoll, perhaps she’ll regale her new neighbors with tales of her artistic endeavors. Or, perhaps she’ll simply sit alone in her chair with a pencil and create poetry.