How-On-Quet Cemetery

I ran across this Tolowa Indian Cemetery in How-On-Quet the other day, when I was out sketching. The Tolowa Indians had their tribal grounds at the basin of the Smith River in Northwestern California and Southwestern Oregon. Entry into the cemetery seemed to be private as there was a "No Trespassing" sign posted and a chain on the gate. It is one of the loveliest "resting places" that I have seen.

I started this and then tossed it aside because I was frustrated with the way it was coming out. This morning I pulled it back out and decided to finish it. The graves weren't as uniform as they are in my picture. The ovals are raised mounds, there were several of those, the one in the bottom right corner had Abalone shells all the way around it and flowers on top. I had painted just the plain graves all the way across then realized that the mounds weren't "prepared for a burial" they were the finished grave... so I changed them, makes it difficult to see the flowers on top. This whole thing was painted tighter than I would have liked but I guess this is better than tossing it...