Getting Ready

 Out paint'n the Barn!

Its been a very busy summer here - all the usual summer work aside.  August has now exited and I'm still struggling to get caught up, to get ready - for my solo exhibit in 4 weeks!!! (Panic setting in...)

"Shed Gate Corner of the Old Stucco Barn"

(plein air oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison)

The exhibit will be at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, Iowa...with the reception and exhibit opening on Thursday, October 3rd, from 5-7pm.  The public is 

invited!

"Summer Afternoon Along the Old Field Road"

(plein air oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison)

Back in August, just a couple weeks ago, I participated in the Pearson Lakes Art Center's Plein Air exhibit.  We had to bring in some canvases and get their backs stamped/signed and had 6 days to go out and paint outdoor landscapes on them.  I painted 2 scenes here on the acreage and one I had scouted out south of us in the valley.

I entered 3 paintings - the painting above "Summer Afternoon Along the Old Field Road" was awarded the Juror's Award...2 of the painting sold the night of the reception and the folks that purchased the Barn painting stopped out at the studio the next day and bought another painting to go with it!  Good experience!
 

"Summer Afternoon on the NW Pasture" 

(plein air oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison)

Now it's back inside the studio - the solo exhibit is just 4 weeks away - busy getting ready.

Hope to see you there!!! 

Summer Green...Thinking Ahead!

Late July Mid Afternoon 

9X12" - oil painting on mounted canvas

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 
 SOLD 
 

I just finished a small painting in the studio this afternoon; it was of a summer day Georgie and I went exploring along the Little Sioux River down in Cherokee County, south of us.  I remember it being a fairly hot and humid day...a typical "dog days of summer" kind of day.  Those were the days I remember most as a kid out of school for the summer.  Loved those times!

The area depicted was down near the Silver Sioux Recreation Area...a pretty neat place.  This exact location was nearby in the Stiles Woodland ...I believe it is a private preserve overseen by a nonprofit group...could be mistaken about that but it is open to casual visitors at times...there is signage there at its entrance giving information about it. 

What I remember about the preserve is the high sun of the day creating stark contrast and shadow...the distant hillside looked hazy in the mid day humidity.  These impressions give me fodder later on when working from the memory of the place and photos I took. I have heard the saying from many sources that the greens of spring and summer are the most difficult to paint.  Since these are the times of year I really enjoy, I have to tackle these issues head on.  Keeping interest and movement or flow through a painting can be challenging with so much green!  There was a small barn along a small creek there that I painted red (it was no longer showing paint) to add a complimentary color, giving relief and a focal point.  I knew the barn would help visually when I spotted it there that afternoon.

Studio work is getting difficult!  It is finally trying to be spring out there and all that comes with it make for more time outside.  Hope you're enjoying some outside time as well!

July In The Valley

  
"July In The Valley"

6X8" oil on mounted canvas
(click on image for a larger view)

July in the valley...I could really get nostalgic about it.  If there were something to hold you through the winter months, one thing would be July in the valley here.

This afternoon the clouds were just wonderful...why should I sound surprised- they always are!  I was able to do a small plein air study from the yard - looking east across the valley here.  Nothing spectacular like a mountain vista but just as pretty in my eyes.  Just as moving in my mind.  Just as perfect a day as there ever was.  I'm looking at this study as a larger finished painting sometime down the road.

Georgie and I sat out on the studio deck late this afternoon after I had finished painting and she had finished with a day of garden work and weeding...and enjoyed a couple beers...the view...and July in the valley...

Ever Have One?

Late Afternoon Bales"

(6X8" oil on mounted canvas)

Ever have one of those days where you almost lose it?  I'm sure we all have...yesterday was my turn I guess.  Near panic struck when it appeared both backup hard drives had gone south on me.  What are the chances of that?  I didn't care to entertain the thought...just kept trouble shooting the studio system until I figured out that apparently my firewire board was toast instead.  

Whew...that was close!  But after that I had to backup files via USB...and we're talking Gigs of backup...my whole last 2 weeks of field and studio work.  Long story short, I spent over 10 hours doing nothing but transferring ones and zeros.

When Georgie came home for lunch she knew something was wrong...I don't like talking about the computers because it makes both of us crazy!  After I told her (I hadn't figured the firewire issue out yet), she suggested I just go back to bed or lock myself safely away so I wouldn't destroy anything else...was tempted but knew I had to face the music.  Boy that's a sick feeling!

Happy ending though; all was saved.

After the tribulation was over Georgie mentioned to me that one of the neighbors was baling hay across the road.  Been waiting to see that...bales are a favorite farm subject of mine.  

Today was a beautiful day...the short heat spell had broken during the night and the humidity was perfect.  After doing chores and other correspondence on jobs and such I figured it'd be a great day to paint some bales!

A small piece, but you never know - they might come and get them before I finish!!!

Today was more like it. Hope you had a good one as well!

From the Beginning

I don't know if I've ever gotten into this topic before (?), but it is something I relive occasionally when someone poses a question where I started; where it all began I guess.

First it was just unintentional small steps...parents who didn't protest the little things...frogs, toads and turtles "free ranging" in the basement; science summer school; teaching the neighborhood squirrels to eat out of my hand; wading and fishing in neighborhood streams.

I gained an appreciation for the beauty of this scheme of things. I was fascinated by the light shimmering off the membrane of an amphibian, the colors and design of a turtle's carapace and plastron, the shapes of trees, their leaves, the hillsides along the Des Moines River valley, the rocks and fossils along Lizard Creek, or lying on a pasture hillside staring at the sky...watching clouds and the birds that intersected my field of view.

One day I bought a book, I was eleven or twelve, the book was full of color illustrations by Louis Aggassiz Fuertes. They were awesome, beautiful...the slip cover of this 1917 edition book, for the lack of a better word, transported me. Two of my most favorite birds, a Cooper's and a Red-tailed Hawk, were perched on treetop branches above forested hillsides. The landscape and the birds were mesmerizing for a young impressionable me. I wanted to paint birds.

Birds in the yard would never seem to hold still long enough for me to draw; I got the idea I needed to photograph them, and then I could draw them from their photo; brilliant idea I thought.

I didn't have a camera, but my mother loaned me her old box camera. Ya, the old Ansco Shur-Shot Jr. at the top of this blog, was to be my first camera. I actually took quite a few pictures with this Ansco...all B&W...it was a 120 film camera (2 1/4X2 3/4" or 6X7cm). You can kind of guess how useful it was as a bird camera though - not very.

One incident convinced me to get a "suitable" camera. I was walking the upper banks along Lizard Creek's south branch west of town one summer afternoon. It was a typical hot and humid day and the afternoon wasn't the best condition to find birds. By just dumb luck I came upon a Great Horned Owl sitting in a tree jutting out of the high bank below me. The bird was maybe 3 feet out from the bank on a branch about 8-10 feet above the water flowing beneath it. The bird was awake, looking across the creek into the woodland there. I dropped as fast as I could into the grass above the high bank and crawled very slowly on my stomach to the bank's edge and peered over - it hadn't seen or heard me, the noise of the creek had masked my presence. My heart was pounding so loud I was sure the bird would hear it!

The owl was sitting in deep shade. I pushed the box camera ahead of me and tried peering into the viewfinder without raising my head too much and giving myself away. I was no more than 6-8 feet away from the bird, yet I could not find the owl in my viewfinder, it just was not bright enough. I looked up again and tried to reference where the bird was, then looked back into the viewfinder - still no bird, I looked up again and the owl was no where...it was gone.

Whether the bird spotted or heard me I really don't know, what I do remember is the rush from the experience and the needling anguish of blowing it! That was not going to happen again! I spent the next year saving money from about any odd job I could find, and bought myself an SLR and a 400mm lens. As best I can recollect, this was in 1962.

I became hooked on nature photography that way...birds eventually led to all flora and fauna and to the landscape. Painting nature eventually led the same direction.

I don't know why I didn't become a biologist or botanist? There was always an urge to paint, draw or photograph and that's all I can say.

We all gotta start somewhere!

August Bales (hope for more!)

What great weather we've been blessed with recently...quite unlike August, more September-like I'd say.

Tonight Georgie and I went "bale spotting" and hit some mother loads! It's amazing that so much hay cutting is going on this late in the summer; but that's OK by us.

Last week we had a real cool storm pass to our east, across the valley and I took a few photographs as the day ended, while an area farmer, renting the pasture across the road from us, baled as fast as he could trying to beat the storm. He didn't need to worry because we just plain got missed.

August Bales - 9X12" Oil on mounted canvas
Sold

The next day I started another plein air piece of a couple of the bales across the road. I got carried away - should have done a smaller piece, but could not finish the same day. The farmer came and began taking bales...! Luckily he had too many for one trip and had started too late into the afternoon to finish so I was able to finish up the next day.

I'm hoping some of the places we spotted tonight will have too much to do for a while and they'll leave some landscape opportunities behind!