"Barry Creek Cache"

color pencil drawing - 6X11" - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

The word "cache" is defined as a place of storage, or concealment...to hide away.  When I think of "cache" I think of a trapper's cache in Canada or Alaska...you know, those neat log cabins built up on stilts so the bears can't get into their provisions!  I painted one of those about 40 odd years ago and it really wasn't a terribly bad attempt :) That was in my "Northwoods Wilderness" days and all I could think of or do related to a life of the voyageur!  Oh, things do change...I guess I 'm as fickle at times as the next person, but the prairie is my final destination by choice and preference...its truly home to me!

Some synonyms for cache are store, deposit, hoard, reserve...the "store" and "deposit" likely best describe what is going on in my latest color pencil study above.  There are places that can be found on many farmsteads of the past and even the present, where you'll see things heaped away from the homes or buildings.  Things like old rolls of barbed wire, cans, tin, scraped cars or trucks, and so on.  These "caches" as I like to call them, are usually long forgotten and no longer used depositories of worn out and no longer useful things.  Most people would simply call them "dumps", albeit small.

These caches are places usually long out-of-use, and grown up with mulberry, ashes, elms and cottonwood trees...hidden from view during the spring, summer and early fall...come winter - its a look back in time when all is again revealed; although more obscured than in plain view.  And most caches are no longer used (added to) as nowadays trash removal and recycling/salvage are common place...a hundred to 75 years ago that wasn't the case.

They may be "dumps" to some but I see them as a storage of past lives and ambitions...broken or failed dreams, or even the excess of success, if-you-will. These are the archeological sites of centuries far into the future...sites for that short burst of civilization just tipping the balance after the industrial revolution moved to the new world.

"Barry Creek Cache" is from the "neighborhood here in SE O'Brien County...a short tick down the road from the studio.  Its a lovely late summer afternoon with lengthening shadows; the cattle have begun grazing again after a hot mid day respite.  The creek is in no hurry now, there hasn't been rain in weeks...the grasses are no longer flourishing but green still stubbornly persists.  

"Barry Creek Cache" is a story; each piece I draw, paint or photograph is a story...I can sit and tell you stories here on this blog, or you can see and hear them here in the studio, "until the cows come home"!  Please don't be in a hurry though, I'd love to hear your stories too!

"Riffles - First Light"

6X12" oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

Its trying to look and feel like winter here for a change...just a skiff of snow this morning but the temps are more winter-like.  I'll admit I have "some" misgivings about the weather being so mild and unwinter-like lately - but not many!!!

Being just "brown" outside hasn't charmed a "current" landscape out of me yet, so I've been working on ideas from my image bank of last summer...if it can't be a gorgeous winter outside, I'll enjoy summer inside on the easel instead! (Or maybe make believe its winter on the easel sometime this winter yet?)

I just finished a small study along the Waterman in the valley here.  This scene is actually only about a mile and a half downstream from the studio here.  If you were to float the creek during decent water levels, you'd probably reach this spot in an easy 10 minutes.  If you were to walk to it, it'd take about 45 minutes or more.  But as the crow flies, this is just next door!  What a beautiful little stream and valley here - don't pinch me please, I do not want to wake up!!!

I've been doing so many small studies the past 2-3 years; I wonder if I'll ever do some larger works from them?!  Guess that's a fair question I'll ponder some more.

Hope your winter's been nice - enjoy the nice ones if you get 'em!

Snowy...

Immature Snowy Owl 

Photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

OK, the blog heading today is misleading...sort of.  It hasn't snowed here in some time and there's none left around to see because of our unusually warm and dry winter so far.  But - the "Snowys" have come!  

This has been a banner year for a Snowy Owl invasion from the tundra north land!  We've been keeping a watchful eye out and it seems they're every where but in our neighborhood...well that's an exaggeration but it sure seems that way!  We did have one south east a few miles of us get picked up with an injury and taken to a wildlife rehab in the area, but haven't seen any in the valley here.

Well today Georgie and I decided we needed a small break from things here and we headed up to where we'd been hearing of sightings about 40 miles north east of us and we found the first one of the season for us near Spirit Lake in Dickinson County!

The bird is an immature Snowy, you can tell by the very heavy banding...the adult males are evidently the whitest and the females have more banding than adult males...but the first year birds are the most heavily banded.

It was a "little" breezy when we found our first Snowy and the only view I could get close with had the poor bird looking into direct sun, so squinting shots are the best I could come up with unfortunately.  It seemed to be relishing the warm sun though!

I'll post a video here of some different angles and distances...very short video, but thought you'd like to see!

Keep a watch for Snowys this winter!!!

Make Believe?

"Summer Evening Formations"

(9X6" color pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison)

(click on the image above for a larger view)

Its January...we all know that, but I think January doesn't (know it)!  Yesterday afternoon Georgie and I went for our first prairie walk in our native pasture this year.  We sat down on of the north pasture hillside benches and pondered all this. We closed our eyes and tried to describe what month it was; George said it was April and I thought it felt like October!   This winter and past 6 months are breaking records here for lack of precipitation and unusually warm temperatures.  And its 2012 on top of it...that's a bit freaky too!

I figured if the winter and the weather can make believe its some other time in space so can I!  

The small color pencil study posted above is of the valley out in front of the house and studio. Its one of those subjects I find hard to resist (cloud formations), yet holds subject matter I'm not usually inclined to draw (Corn)! I do like the late day shadows as they're cast across the fields out front; couple that with the dramatic eastern sky on a humid summer evening and I can't stay away from it!

I'm diving back in to the work here now that the Holidays and all that work is behind us.  A new solo exhibit coming up this spring...I think I must be crazy!!?  More on that (the show - not my sanity) later. 

Who says you have to go south for nice winter weather?  You can just stay in Iowa this year and simply make believe!  Enjoy it!

 

Wishes!

"Along Red Mountain Pass" - oil on canvas

© Bruce A. Morrison

(Sold)

I have been buried, literally, in work this month - as I'm sure many of you are experiencing as well!  But being extremely busy can be a positive thing - at least that's the way I'm going to take it!

Today is the winter solstice!  And here we are...brown, only a smidge of snow left here and there in the shadows!  I had a client come over the other evening to pick up a framed piece; they said, "Brown Christmas - White Easter."  I can live with that.  However it does seem out of character for a brown Christmas here...I only remember one brown Christmas in NW Iowa in 61 years...its just not normal!

I had used the painting above in a blog last winter sometime...Its was used this Christmas on my cards sent out to family, friends and clients, so I'll use it here as a "wish" for you.

I would like to wish you the very best this Christmas - and the best possible new year in 2012.  God Bless and thank you for your support over the years for my work...I hope to keep it up!

See you next year!

December!?

Wow, when did December sneak in??!!  Did it catch you by surprise too?  I knew in the back of my mind it was coming, but I'm somehow behind in my work here and was hoping I could beat its arrival with some jobs I'm working on.

One thing that has snuck up on me is the December 3rd Open House for Peterson area artists...I guess they consider me one of the group!

I'll be at McGee's Gallery on main street in Peterson Iowa tomorrow, December 3rd, from 9a.m through 6p.m.  We'll have lots of treats and things to see and discuss!

Be sure and stop by if you get a chance to enjoy our "almost winter" festivities!

And if you're part of the Noon Kiwanis in Spencer, Iowa, I hope to see you Monday for your monthly program...I'll be introducing the good folks there to the studio and the work I'm involved in throughout the year!

Also I just want to give another plug for your Christmas shopping - I do have a lot of very nice new paintings, drawings, prints and photographs for your hard to buy for significant "other", parent, grand parent, spouse or sibling! Give us a call and stop by anytime!  Buy "made in the USA" this year!

All our best!

Valley Fare

"Morning Light on Waterman"

12X16" oil on mounted canvas

© Bruce A. Morrison
(click on image for a larger view)

Its not winter here yet...which is unusual for this time of year.  Well, it was 5 degrees above zero (Fahrenheit) when I started this morning, and the trees had a neat little coating of ice glistening in the morning sun - but still no snow.  This is somewhat unusual for here...yesterday I was reading a report about how our area is experiencing its second driest season on record.  Yesterday's ice was the result of about .01" of wind driven mist...that's about as good as the moisture "machine" can do around here right now.

But I've been working on warmer themes in the studio anyway, no matter what it decides to do in the valley outside.  This was a piece I've been working on for some time and depicts the Waterman Creek below us as it flows just south of here.  The morning I was there experiencing this actual scene, it was still and pleasant with the morning sun burning through the trees, trying to awaken the sleeping stream still tucked away in dawn's shadow.

Portraying an image like this is very subjective...how can one be "objective" about an emotional/personal experience such as this?!  There is some symbolism here and it is personal for me...I do that sometimes but do not usually talk about it; I want the art work to stand on its own and for others to have their own experience within it.  I have said it before - I do like an image I can drift through; I think I have given the opportunity here.

Thanksgiving is coming up very soon!  I'm supporting Small Business Saturday this year, instead of Black Friday!  As a small business, I provide things that cannot be found on typical Black Friday fare.  But I want to put a call out there for all artists - studios and galleries...we do what we can to provide beauty and substance to the world out there.  Support your local artists and galleries! 

Happy Thanksgiving out there next week!!!