The Maxwell Collection 

- A handshake with Perry Maxwell.

Holes 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 17, and the daunting 18th. It was no small task. I’d felt this pressure before; it felt like golf, but the stakes had significantly greater historical impact. Let’s face it, nobody’s going to remember an awkward, fleeting golf swing in a hundred years, but the brushstrokes… just maybe. I was tasked with creating nine original paintings that would adorn the walls of Prairie Dunes Country Club. Nine paintings that would represent the original nine holes of Prairie Dunes, designed by Perry Maxwell in 1937, but painted in my style as they play today in 2025.

We turned right onto Prairie Dunes Road on a Sunday, the morning of July 27th. The 7th tee box said hello first, and I quickly started to absorb the surrounding environment. As you drive toward Prairie Dunes, you’re engulfed by the Kansas sky. Humble homes and rusted relics of farming’s glory days line the roads. Roads that feel more like trails. I looked at the colors of the prairie, the grasses, a mix of rye and bluegrass, the cottonwood trees, and the dunes as they started to rise seemingly out of nowhere. I imagined Perry Maxwell getting his first glimpse of the land almost one hundred years ago. As we approached the clubhouse, we slowed down, staring out across Prairie Dunes for the first time, it all starting to sink in…

I wasn’t commissioned to paint a golf course; we weren’t hired to help sell tee times; I was about to create a transcendental collaboration with Perry Maxwell himself. We were brought down to Prairie Dunes to create nine different stories that showed the magic of Perry’s vision and the beauty of how a game collaborates with the land. The dunes led the way, Perry added the heartbeat, and I was simply honored to be on the dance floor. 

On the first tee, the pressure really started to sink in. Not the golf; it wasn’t about the golf. I stood there looking down Carey Lane, and it hit me that I was about to shake hands with the man I’d spend the next three months in collaboration with as I painted his world. The next four hours were a conversation that could have never been had online. It wasn’t a round of golf; it was a conversation with what Perry created 88 years earlier and taking it all in as I mapped how my own visual footprints would live in the sands and ultimately on the walls of the clubhouse.

For the next couple of days we immersed ourselves in all things Prairie Dunes. We watched the sun rise and the sun set. I walked every hole, noting the slopes, the depths of the bunkers, the elevation changes, the prominent yuccas, the shadows, and the cottonwoods. We spent an afternoon with Bill Southern, who played his first round at Prairie Dunes in 1963, and listened to the firsthand accounts of how each hole played.  The stories, the history, the changes the course had seen over the years. It was sinking in. I wanted to put all the experience into the art. We examined the topography, felt the grass, and engaged the rolls.

I sat down at the easel, staring at the blank canvas. I shook hands with Mr. Maxwell one more time and put the pencil to the paper.  

Thank you to Prairie Dunes Country Club, the board, the members, Carissa Jackson, and especially Bill Southern for your time. It was truly an honor to create these paintings and beyond an honor to have had my chance at a handshake with Mr. Maxwell himself.  Prairie Dunes is a truly special place; I hope my art holds even the smallest level of respect for the history, the course, and the land.  

Thank you for the collaboration, Perry…

Mark Rivard

Fall 2025