Time...

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Time...just never have enough of it do we!!?  It keeps slipping away, but we make due as best we can.

The next "From the Tallgrass" exhibit begins next week and I'm still printing tags and crating up work to haul to Storm Lake.  We'll have over 60 works in this exhibit!  I'm not in the panic mode yet but its closing in!

Time is also "speeding" along in the valley here outside the studio.  The Wild Plum flower buds are swelling and will most certainly be intoxicating the countryside with their mesmerizing smell and beautiful blossoms in just a few days!  This is 4 weeks sooner than we've recorded them in the past...I keeping saying it but the weather is really ahead of itself this year...almost like the planet sped up rotation and skipped a month somewhere this winter!

I hope I don't miss the plums during the last minute preparation with the exhibit!  And I hope you don't miss out either!  Be sure and set some time aside this April if you can and stop by the Witter Gallery in Storm Lake, Iowa to see "From the Tallgrass".  And if you can make it next Thursday, April 5th - early evening - from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., I'd sure love to see ya at the artist's reception!

Don't let things slip away this spring, enjoy every moment you can!

Out and About!

Pasque Flowers (Pulsatilla patens) on Waterman Prairie

Photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

Its finally time to get out of the studio and shake the cobs out'a my legs!  Oh I could've easily hiked with the cameras this winter, it was so nice, but there was no snow 90% of the time and a brown winter landscape doesn't move me too much I guess.

I knew the pasques were up - they "had" to be!  I've seen pasques before Easter in years past, but they were usually "just" emerged and sometimes accompanied by snow!  But this year is so weird...70's and 80's in March??!!  I finally got out for a look yesterday afternoon when the wind was mild for a change.  

Ya, there they were, hundreds of 'em!  I was late as I'd expected and the majority were a little fried and pale from hot dry weather.  But there were plenty to choose from.

It was nice to finally get out on the prairie!  The Western Meadowlarks were serenading the hillsides while the Chorus and Northern Leopard Frogs called happily from the bottoms.  Spring is glorious! 

Spring!

"Winter Along the Little Sioux"

color pencil drawing - 6X10" - © Bruce A. Morrison
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Today is the first day of spring!!!  So why am I heading this blog with a winter landscape??  Well I'd been working on this little color pencil piece for the past several weeks and finally finished it last night - on the last day of winter!  Glad that's over (in more ways than one).

(click on image for a larger view)

I've been busy preparing for my solo exhibit coming up in April...getting things labeled, crated up and ready to roll!  The "From the Tallgrass" exhibit opens on April 5th at the Witter Gallery in Storm Lake, Iowa and runs through April 26th.

There will be an Artist's Reception at the Gallery on Thursday, April 5th.  The reception runs from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m. and the public is invited!  That means you!  :)

This should be a fun exhibit.  Come on down to Storm Lake and see what I've been up to the past 9 months!  I'd love to see ya there! 

Wishing you a great Spring!

Winter's Waning

"Winter Stubble, Bales"

oil on mounted canvas - 6X12" - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

Still waking up to snow covered fields...the occasional Bald Eagle passing by the farm each morning, repeating the "visit" each late afternoon.  The winter flock of Crows appears much larger this year and they seem to make a small game out of harassing whatever sits long enough to attract attention.

But winter is waning here.  Yesterday afternoon the ice went out on the creek down below, and on the Ocheyedan River to the northeast.  We had heavy "rain"  a few days back - even thunder and lightning, our first for the year.

Georgie saw her first Robin of the year last week, while I think I've been in front of the easel too much and haven't seen a thing yet!

I did decide I had better work on a winter landscape before the "atmosphere " of this season totally melts away.  This is a typical winter agricultural scene for me...and for the "neighborhood" in which we live.  I tried to work more with some negative space in the foreground, using the stubble as a visual guide, directing the composition into the upper center of the canvas.  I worked "juicer" than I have been all winter...the brushes carrying heavier paint and leaving the canvas a little thicker with paint.  I like painting this way, but its not as easy for me as I'd like!  I do hope you enjoy it!

This painting and other new works will be at the Witter Gallery (Storm Lake) in April for my next solo exhibit - I'll give more specific information soon - be sure and keep April open on your calendar!

Here's to a happy ending of the season and an even happier beginning of the next to arrive!