Working the Summer Landscape

"Late Afternoon on Dog Creek"

photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

The landscape is the staple of my winter work here at the studio, and the summer has not stood still while I spent the last several weeks putting the finishing touches on the "From the Tallgrass" exhibit - so I've been out hiking around the "neighborhood" trying to catch those last summer days before autumn throws too many hints around.

 

The past couple summers here have been a major bust with area streams...flooding creeks and rivers.  But after about a 23 month trend, we've gone through a decent dry spell and I've tried to revisit the creeks in the familiar haunts nearby.  Now, I'll admit I've been searching for ideas for future painting projects - not photographs...but things have not been going that way!

 

I've spoken of this quandary to a small degree in a recent issue of my studio newsletter...I like to gather information in the field for future artwork ideas.  I compile this information (files of photographs) for later reference material to work from - usually during the winter months when I'm in the studio almost all the time.

 

But I've been coming up with photographs I like as "photographs"!  Why bother redoing something that works as it "is"?  I don't like the idea of reworking something that already works!    The above image of Dog Creek, a few miles south of here, is a good example.  I found the late afternoon back-lit subject shouting for attention; the small creek quietly meandering in its narrow channel, catching the light in an almost elegant manner...the open shadows inviting the eye into the scene, embraced by the canopy of branches.  What a nice painting idea!

 

The quandary arises once I'm back at the studio "processing" image files from the day's explorations...dang it!  It works so well on its own, and I like it!  That's important too right?!  OK, another nice photograph of a small prairie stream may soon find its way to the studio's gallery wall.  The idea of a painting lost...well at least for now; no need to redo something that works quite nicely already...there'll be another painting down the road eventually!

 

 

Winter Work at the Studio

"Tallgrass Songster"

8X18" color pencil rendering

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

I'm still here plugging away in the studio!  I finally finished a piece that is about the third attempt to an idea I first got 6-7 years ago.  The "star" of the show is a male Dickcissel belting out it's name, in song form, among the Tallgrass Prairie in bloom.  The bird is taken from a study I did, which is now in the permanent "drawing collection" of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin.  I have been trying to find a "home" for my study and this is my first "finished" attempt to see if I have!  The foreground is a mix of forbs in a prairie remnant near us that Georgie and I often explore.  The Echinacea (purple coneflowers) are of our county's true native population - Echinacea angustifolia, or "Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower".  The male Dickcissel is proudly belting out it's name, the call from which the bird was named (virtually sounds like Dick, Dick, cissel).  This is a larger piece for me with color pencil...I find the medium can be exasperating at times and generally stick with small studies instead...but I persevered and finished it this week.  

"The Ritter Elevator"

11X19" oil painting

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

Another work finished earlier, was an oil painting that was "kind of" different for me; it was a commissioned work done for a client commemorating (if-you-will) her trips to the grain elevator with her father, back when she was a child.  The elevator is one I'm very familiar with, have driven past and around it for 30+ years.  What I didn't know were some of the history and stories behind the "Ritter Elevator" - was fun to research and depict the elevator during the early 1950's!  The red IH box truck was my client's father's truck.  I took the rest of the vehicles from the area and other sources...the red tractor is my neighbor's father's Farmall "M" and their flarebox wagon (did repaint that a different color though).  I do like doing work depicting the agricultural environment/landscape and felt this was actually a good fit.  I've said it before and will likely again - the Tallgrass Prairie made this state what it is today and without that natural heritage, we would not have that "black gold" the prairie gave us - the soil.  After handing the painting over to it's new owner, I asked her if I could have permission to share it with you here - she was very happy to!

My first "Morrison's Studio Newsletter" (Vol.1, No.1) went out today!  If you'd like to sign up for it, there's a link to the form right along the sidebar to this blog...if you get this blog via e-mail you can go directly to the form by way of this link -

http://www.morrisons-studio.com/Newsletter%20page.htm

Hope your work has been going well this winter!  Stay safe!