Old Memories Retreived - Easel Tripping

"Summer Morning, Approaching Jemmerson" - oil painting - ©Bruce A. Morrison

I often wring memories out of that brain I claim ownership to; I believe its those that have remained closest to the surface that spill out at the easel. These paintings have seen daylight most recently, and both are of times and places that I think we all identify and seek sometimes. That piece of solitude…a refuge perhaps.

I’ve begun a quest to pry these away from that “I really should someday” quagmire I’ve saddled this host with for decades. I’m keeping them small. They are a more intimate part of me after all. The earth didn’t shake, but it felt like it was cradling me…like I was there before in another time - it was familiar and gave a sense of calm and joy at the same moment.

The above painting "Summer Morning, Approaching Jemmerson" depicts Jemmerson Slough in Dickinson County, Iowa just west of Spirit Lake.  Its a beautiful wetland complex made up of several potholes and marshes.

I used to spend many weekend mornings at Jemmerson when I was younger and full of myself and energy...I had thoughts of someday living on a marsh and wading around in my home-made floating blind...taking photographs of the many birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, going about their daily lives there.  It was a great dream.  And it was a priviledge to have experienced what I did there.  I can still smell the decaying earth under the marshy waters as I crawled along in my blind - stirring up the muck from the bottom...it was like an elixir!  The sounds there were raucous, and then even sublime.  Some years later I took up recording the sounds of nature...I wish I had done so from that marsh blind!

"Waterman, Below the Slides" - oil painting - ©Bruce A.Morrison

I've actually been working on the painting above, "Waterman, Below the Slides", a while...maybe 20+ years!? I first visited the Litka Wildlife Area after we moved here to SE O'Brien County, Iowa 23 years back. I took a little trip down there (just 2 miles as the Crow flies), and was really taken with it...a great descent to the creek - which I had made my way down and saw the extreme bank drop off! It reminded me of the "Slides" I knew, growing up along the Des Moines River in Ft Dodge, Iowa.

Waterman Creek makes a quick turn south here and the bank had sluffed off steeply over the years. I'd just be guessing the height of the drop off at some point, but maybe 75+ feet would be close?

Anyway, it was an ideal day there nestled in the bottom of the ravine, just the birds and I...a beautiful flowing pool of reflections eventualy passing into a small rock filled rapids, as the stream turned the corner.

Sadly...at least my thoughts, Waterman flooded not long after that and carved a new channel behind the trees in the background of the painting...and as far as I was concerned - not as nearly serene and peacefull as it once was - at least in my memory.

I wanted to remember it at I saw and felt it...this is an attempt to do so.

I found the elements of the landscape very interesting and symbolic here.  The decline and destruction taking place on the right side, and the serene woodland embrace on the opposite side of the creek.  The pleasant calm-like pool of water in the foreground, with the more chaotic, and yet-to-be-seen of what lies ahead downstream, as the creek dissapears around the bend.

Isn't that so succinctly describing this moment we are living through right now as a nation?  Even as a world?

I hope you can take a moment to refresh or recharge from that pressure we all feel throughout our busy, or maybe even troubling lives. Take a moment to look and listen, where the quiet presides. Keep that memory. But whatever we do, embrace the “good” - its something we all need.

Thanks for stopping by! Please be good to one another - we’re all in this together.

Autumn Notes

 

"Stream-side Autumn Ashes" - color pencil drawing - ©Bruce A. Morrison

Autumn rates way up there on my favorite season scale…its a memory bank of pleasant days outdoors with a warm sun in your face, and the crisp air a pleasant mediator.

 

Unless…ya there’s always a disclaimer. Unless the neighbors have just harvested their soybeans and corn! In that case, if its a warm humid day (as we’ve been experiencing this fall), outside work or leisure can find a person tormented by seen and unseen assailants…that like to bite! Youch, what a bummer those little “no-seeums” (minute pirate bugs) and Asian Ladybird Beetles can be!

 

But hope rests eternal in a future killing frost, and a return to the pleasant 60 degree days we used to refer to as Indian Summer. 

 

 

Golden-crowned Kinglet - photograph - ©Bruce A. Morrison

Right now we’re really enjoying those familiar visitors returning this fall - bird migration brings our warblers and sparrows back to the acreage and pastures…a myriad of small birds darting about catching small bugs or stripping the seeds from the past summer’s flowers.

 

 

"Autumn Along Dog Creek" - oil painting - ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

Our leaves aren’t spectacular this year, but we had good summer rains and a dry fall for harvesting. I’ve often found a dry fall to make for a great “leaf looker” season - maybe it was the wet summer that set things up the way we’re seeing it this year? I’m just leaving this one to chance - what else can you do? Enjoying it never the less! 

 

I’ll just paint or draw autumn to suit the season’s spirit I guess…come on Indian Summer!!!

 

Thanks for stopping by! Please be good to one another - we’re all in this together.

 

(Artwork and Photography from Morrison’s Studio on Prairie Hill Farm - morrisons-studio.com)

 

June is "Dickcissel Month"...Just Say'n

 

(color pencil drawing - ©Bruce A. Morrison)

I got an idea last summer, reveling in all the Dickcissels living along our road and pastures. Nothing deep or serious mind you...and selfishly - something just for my own fun. I have to keep reminding myself - if you aren't having fun, then knock off what your doing and get to it...life is too short! 

 

I don't exactly recall why or how I came to this idea? Maybe it was all the perseverance these birds were being educated to each day - forming and raising families...staking their territorial claims and announcing that every day...all day long. Its really quite something to see and hear throughout the summer months.

 

I decided to just have fun and dedicate this artwork to them...all the graduates of Prairie Hill Farm - Class of '22. They wouldn't all pose for their class pictures but I got a few of them...mostly the guys of course, but a couple girls showed up as well.

 

Making this reminiscent of an old country school class composite did present some issues for me.  Color pencil is not a good tool for lettering nor graphics...I almost gave up the silly idea half way through, even before getting to the birds. I should've farmed that part off to someone who is actually "Good" at lettering and calligraphy...like our Daughter-in-Law Amy, she's a "Natural" at design and lettering - just look around our house!

 

The birds were fun - as was the central image representing their "school grounds"...putting everyone in a oval was "not" fun...not an easy shape constraint for my tired eyes and hands.

 

But here's to the "Prairie Hill Farm Summer Academy - Dickcissel Class of '22" - of whom many graduates returned this year and every year, to school their young and bring them up to be proud little Dickie Birds (as someone once called them)!!!

 

(color pencil drawing - ©Bruce A. Morrison)

 

I decided to declare June as "Dickcissel Month", in honor of these little birds and the memory they leave behind after they head south at summer's end.   I still have a glimmer of a seed to sprout a more serious Dickcissel piece someday...maybe a painting, who knows?

 

But I still remind myself not to take things too seriously, and have fun in the moment!

 

Be good to one another out there - we truly need each other.

They Just Keep a Comin'!

Wood Duck Drake - Visiting the "Mrs."

 

Have I ever been lax!!!  Well, not really, just shirking my blog responsibilities I guess.  It is so easy to get behind on things - especially when Spring arrives with all its distractions and perks!!!

 

They just keep coming!

 

Waterman Creek Great Blue Heron Rookery

Nest Building Time

 

 

First it was the Great Blue Herons returning to the Waterman Rookery across the road from us.  I'd fretted all winter about them; they'd had so many set backs here the past two years.  Two Derechos in a 7 month period destroyed 2/3's of the rookery...but nest building has taken place in April...not as many birds but around 30-36 we believe at this point.

 

 

After the rookery grabbed our attention then the other bird travelers got our attention.  This year was a banner year for Trumpeter Swans!  We observed flocks every day here for nearly 2 weeks - so neat to see that here.

As of today nearly all our spring visitors and summer residents have returned...I believe the Eastern Kingbirds, Bobolinks and Dickcissels are the main characters yet to return, but I know there are others - they just keep a comin'!

 

Enjoy your Spring and be kind to each other!

(All images - ©Bruce A. Morrison)