Print of the Week

"Summer Memories" 

- signed open edition print from the original oil painting 

- © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

I have print sales from different sources during the month and probably rarely mention the "sales" side of my art business.  Yes, I tell people I'm an artist, but most of the time people don't equate "Art" to business.  If you are doing art to support the art and pay your bills, and that is what you do 24/7 - then art is a business, believe me!

The fun thing about the open edition prints I produce is they sell from many different sources...I have artwork and prints in several galleries throughout the state and area (as well as a few online galleries) - and here at the studio gallery.  Its always fun to get sales from other sources because I'm unaware of the sales until I find out in the mail (many times e-mail)...its like a pleasant surprise to bring an upbeat to the day! 

I just got a check in the mail for a print yesterday "Summer Memories".  This image has a story and has morphed more than most artwork I've done in recent years.  After thinking about the original oil painting, I thought maybe doing a "print of the week" for the blog would be a neat idea(?)...we'll give it a try!

"Summer Memories" has had other names...titles are kind of iffy at times, I usually go with whatever hits me first.  But after a period of time I reflected on what this painting was really about.

This painting is a "memory" - 99% of what I usually paint or draw, is done from the original subject, like a photograph I took or a place drawn or painted on site.  This painting is more from memories of summers on my grandfather's farm down by Madrid, Iowa.  My brother and I would spend 2 or 3 weeks with grandparents each summer, this went on from a very young age - around 6 or 7 through our mid teens.  (My sister would too but we were split up so one set of grandparents would have us boys and the other had our sister).

This became a dominant summer memory for me - spending time at the farm was an adventure...things that happened or that we did there have become bigger than life in my mind.  These summer memories prompted the painting.  But it doesn't end there.

Every artist has their quirks...hmm, maybe I have several - but never mind!  One quirk I do have is I find my best comfort zone is "when I can lay eyes on it"!  Painting a memory wasn't my strong suit and I made the mistake of asking a friend what they thought of the painting.  Mistake.  I repainted it 3 more times.  Not a good experience!

The "Summer Memories" that I was the happiest with was the first one - go with your first gut feeling is now my mantra!  The painting you see at the top of this blog is that painting - the prints I offer of "Summer Memories" is also that same first painting.

I kept the oil painting "Summer Memories" for my private collection, and even though it is now a somewhat different version of the above painting - it still brings back those memories of carefree summer days on the farm...the water pump in the kitchen (no faucets), sleeping above the machine shed in the hired man quarters - on an old spring mattress bed, no TV back then - just an old tube radio, climbing through the hayloft of the barn, walking around with the chickens in the farmyard, taking baths in big galvanized tubs out in the farmyard "in broad daylight"(!), being pulled from the pig pen after dropping a brand new toy in with the hogs (hey there was some "real" excitement too!)

"Summer Memories" - signed open edition print from the original oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison - available from the studio here or other galleries listed on my web site - www.morrisons-studio.com

 

Follow the Light

"Late Afternoon in the Valley" - oil painting

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

We've had some strange light the past couple days due to forest fires up in northern Saskatchewan I guess...it might give some very unusual photographic landscapes opportunities but I decided to stay inside and work on a small painting from the valley a few miles south of us.

Light is pretty important in painting, photography or any visual expression I'd think.  This painting has been an idea for a couple years and finally made it out of my mind...I liked the light, a late fall afternoon...shadows getting longer and a warmer contrast/effect if-you-will.  I also love bales and this one had both rectangular and round bales...those geometric shapes you just don't find in the landscape until baling time!

I struggled a bit with this painting because I wanted to depict the barn in its current decline; the roof is about 1/3 gone...it appears to have been re-roofed over the original cedar shakes, with red asphalt shingles...possibly 40-50 years back.  But every time I tried depicting holes in the roof and the peeling asphalt shingles, it just wasn't working for me...I also felt it was detracting from the pleasant feel I remembered from the landscape itself.  So I "fixed" the roof.  Hey...I've spent so much time working on our own outbuilding's roofs that I figured I could do some good in the painting too!

The cupola is partially gone however and I left it the way it now sits. 

Hmmm, speaking of "our" roofs, I'd better get busy around here...nah, plenty of time right?! I think I'll follow the light!

 

Prairie Monarchs

"Prairie Monarch - Bison Bull"

color pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

I've been working on a prairie monarch since March - not the insect kind, but rather the "regal" mammal kind - the American Bison.  I've never really drawn or painted a bison, except for a logo I did several years ago for the area's Prairie Heritage Center.  I have taken a few photographs over the years, but came across one in my file that I thought I could isolate and set into a scene fitting for him.  I had to do a bull - up close these guys are quite intimidating!

 

2 1/2 months on one drawing has been a little much for me, I need to get loose now - both figuratively and outdoors.  The prairie pasture has thrown several surprises at us this year...we're seeing many plants we haven't seen in the places they're showing their heads.  Some of our hillside pasture's original native seed bank is coming back, its pretty exciting to see!  I need to take advantage of what's out there and free myself from the lap board (drawing board) so much.

 

I've often wondered what it would have been like to see Bison here, in our local habitat a couple hundred years back.  I purposely set the bull bison in the drawing, on the side of a hillside slope; its how I see our pasture much of the time and adds a bit more drama as far as the image is concerned.  The sky is also quite dramatic out here in the open prairie, and by placing it back behind the hill top, it adds some tension and drama as well...is it a breaking sky or a developing storm over the horizon?

 

I hope you are able to get out there this summer and see what develops...what's over that horizon for you?!  

 

See you on the Tallgrass!

 

Cycles Behind...Cycles Ahead

Blue-eyed Grass with native Bee

- photography © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

I've written about Phenology before; if you keep any kind of record of events or relating to events (like writing down rain amounts on your wall calendar) - then you're practicing Phenology.  The Aldo Leopold Foundation states that Phenology is " a segment of ecology focusing on the study of periodic plant and animal life-cycle events that are influenced by climate and seasonal change in the environment."

For instance, we keep records each year as to when certain birds first appear in the spring or fall during migration, when the Great Blue Herons in the Waterman Creek rookery across the road first return, when the native plants in the prairie pasture here begin blooming, and so on.

We don't specifically do this because we're doing scientific research or something of that nature, we also do it because we're just plain interested and its fun!  It also can help with just plain curiosity.

We've all heard someone exclaim that "things are sure early this year"!  Well, are they really?  Or are they just early compared to "last year", or are they running at an average?  Phenology can answer a lot of those questions.  But one reason I like keeping records like this are to "be prepared"!

If I know that the hummingbirds usually show up at such and such a time (on the average), and we put the feeders out a couple days ahead of time - we're ready for 'em!

I also know that certain other events like bloom time can be prepared for...here on our prairie pasture one example is the Blue-eyed Grasses (Sisyrinchium campestre).  It is such a small flowering native forb that it can be easily missed if you're not out and looking in the right places.  But I know (from past years) that it usually shows up on May 15th.  But some years it may be early or late, so I'll start looking during the first week of May just in case.  This year it was fortunate I did - it showed up here on our pasture on May 7! 

The blossoms of this tiny member of the Iris family measure around 1/2" or slightly less across; so you can get an idea of how small the little native bee (specific species unidentified) actually is!  Iowa has maybe around 35-40 types of native Bees and some, like this one are quite small.  When does this bee usually show up here on our pastures?  Well - when their forage does, so each year I see this bee its on the day I find the first Blue-eyed Grasses in bloom!

Just because one plant bloomed early, does that mean everything is?  Not necessarily but sometimes other things show the same pattern as well...this year the American Toads here began singing the 3rd week of April - that is early for them also...about 2 weeks early!  

Ya, some years those cycles we all pay attention to are behind, and some years ahead - its fun keeping track and looking forward to the next arrival or departure...that's life ya know!

Earth Day 2015

(color pencil drawings  © Bruce A. Morrison)

 

The Chipping Sparrows are back; their pitched staccato song is once again in the door yard.  The American Goldfinch males are bold and Yellow once again, and the first White-throated Sparrow male of spring showed up yesterday morning as the frost left the waterleaf outside the kitchen door - It's spring!  And it's Earth Day once again - it should be every day; we live here and wouldn't exist without it!

My feelings about our planet and what we are doing to it have not changed since last Earth Day, nor the Earth Days before.  But I won't get too verbose this year...I don't want to wear you out with what you should already know and hold dear.  If you want to hear it again, you can revisit Earth Day here at the Prairie Hill Farm Blog from April 2013 - Earth Day...It "IS" Important!

I will celebrate Earth Day on this blog a little differently this year, going back to the rebel roots of my youth I guess.  I protested all that was wrong with our treatment of the Earth back then too.  Please take a moment and listen and reflect; after all "Who is Gonna Stand Up and Save the Earth?"

Keep on Rock'n for a Free World Neil...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZyL-FZ4lOU

The Earth is our bed, our nursery and our life - do not spoil it!
 

How It Needs To Be - For Our Sake

 "Monarch on New England Aster" 

color pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

I've always had a soft spot for Monarch butterflies, but then who hasn't enjoyed these big beauties each summer?  They have always put on a great show here on our acreage and the prairie pastures.  But like many other people - some years ago I began to notice something just wasn't right.  My observations weren't exactly scientific; I was only observing a change, but it was certainly becoming clearer and clearer as I read more of what was going on in their winter sanctuaries, and how our newer agricultural pesticides were affecting them in their breeding grounds of the central U.S.

In the mid 1990's their numbers were estimated at 1 Billion.  In 2014 their numbers were estimated at 35 million.  The drop is so precipitous that status for protection under the Endangered Species Act was sought. In December of 2014 The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated that Endangered Species Act protection may be warranted for Monarchs, and announced the agency will now conduct a one-year status review.

This and the Presidential Memorandum last June (2014) is highlighting a real need to investigate and act upon the plight all of our pollinators are now facing; not just honeybees, but our native bees, and butterflies and the many other insects that pollinate our crops and the flora of this planet.

It is my sincere hope that we will all consider the findings and research from the independent science sector - those with no "skin" in the game.  For too long we have seen Big Ag research and studies showing a virtual "no effect" in results pertaining to environmental damage to flora and fauna.  And the "revolving" door of political appointments and corporate interests are blocking true independent research as well. I personally do not feel a need or "pull" to put all the "eggs" of our natural heritage into the basket of corporations that only profit with status quo or increases of millions of tons of pesticides each year.  But maybe that's just "me"? 

I will admit that I draw, paint and photograph things that strike me as beautiful, but I do not want to be categorized as simply a "decorative" artist.  I do work of what is personally important to me - the land, the flora and fauna of the tallgrass prairie...these are all important to me physically and emotionally, they are something I dearly want my great grand children and theirs to inherit and experience.  I don't just draw something because its "pretty", but to me its all beautiful, regardless.

The top image, the color pencil drawing of the "Monarch on New England Aster" is of beautiful subject matter, and it strikes me as something precious...I'm drawn to it by my interests in the Monarch butterfly, it's conflicts, it's future and it's habitat needs.  I'm drawn to do this piece because of my concern and my admiration for this species here in North America.  Aside from that, the drawing was also a challenge to do and I am happy with the outcome - it wasn't easy for me!

 "Monarch on Heliopsis helianthoides"

(front side of "Prairie Cantabile" two sided violin painting)

casein painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

The only other time I can really think of doing artwork of a Monarch was on the front of a painted violin done years back for a NW Iowa Symphony Orchestra fund raiser.  It wasn't the main subject or focal point but a supporting character.  I liked the way this casein painting depicted a jungle of seeming chaos...the prairie and all its complexities can appear as chaos to the casual glance!

I hope a "pretty" picture can raise awareness of a precious piece of the prairie's puzzle. I'll continue portraying the landscape that I love and the natural heritage I feel passionately about...I'd hate to think of doing so as just "documenting" what "once was".  I'd rather think of it as how it needs to be...for our sake.

 

Past and Present

"Black-capped Chickadee and Blue Jay Portraits"

from the Favorite Birds Portrait Series

colored pencil drawings - © Bruce A. Morrison

I was recently thinking about where portraits and paintings of birds have gone with me over the years.  I don't believe I still have the "very first" images I drew of birds, but do have some from my teenage years...the very first "commissioned" birds I can remember doing were india ink drawings...I may still have slides of those...I'll have to do some digging and see.  I think they were around 1966-67 when I was around 16-17 years old?

The "portrait " series I've been dabbling with the past couple years, when my time permits, have all been in color pencil.  The earlier ones in Prismacolor and the later with Lyra polycolor.  My very first color pencil of a bird was a rather badly done drawing of a Peregrine Falcon.  I don't remember the year but I'm guessing it was around 1962-3.  I vaguely remember what that drawing looked like and it's not a memory I care to hang onto!  But we all have to start somewhere.

 "Blue Jay" on mat board
colored pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison

I took up color pencils again around the early 1980's...the image above is of the type of work I did at that time...using a colored board to draw upon was a convenient  tool - saving a lot of time in rendering a background color with the pencils themselves.  

"Snow Laden Cedar - Chickadees"

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

I did many drawings of birds but didn't "paint" a bird until my first year in Community College.  I was in my art teacher's office and saw paintings he was working on.  He had a painting of a Killdeer that I was quite taken with - here was an artist painting birds!  I always wanted to paint birds and this was the catalyst that pushed me forward!  My art teacher "Mr. Halm" (Robert Halm) encouraged all his students to do what "moved" them and that was wonderful encouragement for me.

The "Snow Laden Cedar - Chickadees" was a change from earlier years too, I was now placing birds in their environment.

It is occasionally fun to look back where you were years ago, but that was "then" and this is "now".   Keep moving forward!