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)

 

Fridays - "Archived Works" Day!

 

"Low Water Morning" - oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison (from a private collection in Maine)

 

I've decided to try and make Fridays an "Archived Works" day. I'll post a painting, drawing or serigraph (silkscreen print) from the "archive" files of years past...and give a little back story on the work. I hope you'll find it interesting! 

 

This first posting will be a summer one - lets warm things up please! It's a small oil painting of the creek across the road from our home and the studio - Waterman Creek. I'll get into a background on the creek's name some other time, but it has a lot of history with "known" Native Americans...as far back as the Mill Creek culture of 1200 A.D. and earlier. The oldest known "remaining" Native American crop field in Iowa is just behind this view depicted...maybe 3-400 yards. 

 

I'm cognizant of these things when I'm out hiking - and I'll add that this is private property that I've been given permission to walk - making it even more special because I am less familiar with the landscape and its much more of a privilege to be there.

 

If you grew up near or on a creek or stream, you can relate to the draw of it all...the sounds of the water rippling over and around rocks, the occasional flash of minnows, a water strider or two in the back pools...a crawdad on a clear bottom, or a frog jumping in ahead of your gaze. They are a magnet to me. 

 

When I walk a creek, it brings back so much that I can be completely distracted from "adult" things and usually that means my mission of finding composition, color, movement and light...something to paint, draw or photograph. It's a shame I've become so serious...I tell myself to just chill and find a rock to sit on...just close my eyes and listen - take it in and hang onto the moment. 

 

This painting was done more as a "study", a term meaning it may or may not be revisited another time as a larger, more in depth work. I was happy with the color usage and play...it was a drought year that summer and the creek was easy to walk while running so low. This little painting now resides in a private collection in Maine.

 

(This painting and other archived artwork can be viewed at - https://morrisons-studio.com/archived-works/ )

 

"Low Water Morning" - oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

That's More Like It!

 Our Spring Birds! 

(composite - color pencil drawings)

© Bruce A. Morrison

click on image for a larger view

Wow, its just been over a month since my last blog entry and I have to say "That's more like it!"  We had snow every week in April here with a couple blizzards and weeks with more than one storm - we're finally out of the snow!

And once the snow stopped, our favorite birds started pouring in and making an appearance!  Some will be leaving soon on their migration further north but the majority will be staying the summer or are our year-round friends.  Got to LOVE the Birds!

"The Forgotten Bale"

oil panting - © Bruce A. Morrison
click on image for a larger view

I have also been painting in the studio but it has gotten very hard now that the sun is shinning and the birds are singing.  This painting is a little different for me, its a late autumn scene and the leaves are done turning yet the native grasses on the hillside are still quite vibrant yellow with hints of orange.  The lighting is flat and contrasty with the late afternoon fall sun.  The fields have been mowed with stubble still affording the wildlife some cover and forage; and a bale lies forgotten before the winter's first snow arrives.

I need to switch gears and get back to the greens of spring and summer ahead!

Ya this is more like it!

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!

 

Breaking Out

"September Dawn, Little Sioux River"

12X16" oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 
SOLD

Time to bust outta this place!  The "studio" I mean!  Been working on all sorts of things a person must, but the prairie, birds and the landscape in general are shouting at me out the windows surrounding my chair and I need to start focusing out there!

The last piece I just finished up this afternoon is actually from a plein air study I did not too terribly far from the studio about 3 years back.  The piece was started outside on the site, but had to be finished that day in the studio because the conditions changed so quickly.  The study can be seen here (below) and can be read about from that original blog from September 17, 2009 - http://prairiepainter.blogspot.com/2009/09/summer-still.html

 The original plein air study

"September Dawn, Little Sioux River"
Oil on mounted canvas - 6X8"

(click on image for a larger view)

Plein air studies are a natural step for a painter...first you do small color studies (paintings) on location, and these serve as guides for further work in a larger "finished" painting - done later in the studio.

I sold the original plein air study of this painting just a couple months after I did it in 2009 so I had to work from an image file I scanned of the original 6X8" plein air study.  That still worked just fine...I wasn't trying to laboriously duplicate the small original, but instead work off of the "impression" the original piece offered as far as lighting, color and composition.  The finished piece is unmistakably done from the original, yet is more refined to reflect my interpretation of that morning...the fog or haze rising off of the river as the early morning, late summer sun, breaks through the atmosphere upstream.

I'm spending what time the Good Lord is granting me, celebrating the landscape surrounding our valley and area of the tallgrass prairie here...celebrating in my paintings, drawings and photography - but its high time to break out of here and get into the summer outside!

Hope you can get out and enjoy this summer!

Valley Fare

"Morning Light on Waterman"

12X16" oil on mounted canvas - SOLD

© Bruce A. Morrison
(click on image for a larger view)

Its not winter here yet...which is unusual for this time of year.  Well, it was 5 degrees above zero (Fahrenheit) when I started this morning, and the trees had a neat little coating of ice glistening in the morning sun - but still no snow.  This is somewhat unusual for here...yesterday I was reading a report about how our area is experiencing its second driest season on record.  Yesterday's ice was the result of about .01" of wind driven mist...that's about as good as the moisture "machine" can do around here right now.

But I've been working on warmer themes in the studio anyway, no matter what it decides to do in the valley outside.  This was a piece I've been working on for some time and depicts the Waterman Creek below us as it flows just south of here.  The morning I was there experiencing this actual scene, it was still and pleasant with the morning sun burning through the trees, trying to awaken the sleeping stream still tucked away in dawn's shadow.

Portraying an image like this is very subjective...how can one be "objective" about an emotional/personal experience such as this?!  There is some symbolism here and it is personal for me...I do that sometimes but do not usually talk about it; I want the art work to stand on its own and for others to have their own experience within it.  I have said it before - I do like an image I can drift through; I think I have given the opportunity here.

Thanksgiving is coming up very soon!  I'm supporting Small Business Saturday this year, instead of Black Friday!  As a small business, I provide things that cannot be found on typical Black Friday fare.  But I want to put a call out there for all artists - studios and galleries...we do what we can to provide beauty and substance to the world out there.  Support your local artists and galleries! 

Happy Thanksgiving out there next week!!!

Summer Still

September Dawn, Little Sioux River
Oil on mounted canvas - 6X8"
Sold

This morning was a nice replay of many mornings this summer, particularly this month. A nice morning haze or low lying fog along the valleys and streams. It is something I like to try and chase on occasion, for the effect it plays upon the landscape.

I did a painting today and the fog on the Little Sioux River was fleeting, it was gone when the work began, but there was a very light transparent veil over the water as the sun burned through the trees upstream.

This was a difficult effect I've never tried to tackle before and very transient. The inception of the piece was begun on site and the painting finished here in the studio. I tried a smaller canvas in hopes I could do justice to the fleeting impression I had of the river at dawn...but even so it is something I'd like to try more of in the future.

I don't know if I can get in any more painting before the Artisans Road Trip in two weeks, but I'll try if possible. My to-do list for A.R.T. is getting longer!

5 days till summer's end!

Yesterday's Effort

"Little Sioux Sand Bar"
oil on mounted canvas, 9X12"

Yesterday was a new painting day and the Little Sioux River over by Linn Grove (Iowa) was the location of choice. This area is below the dam there and there are many spots to walk along or even park on both sides, but this view was from the north side looking across stream.

I think I'm trying to do things I'm comfortable with because I feel out of touch and "shape" with the canvas at the present time - having spent so many months in front of my monitor working on websites and educational presentations, and such. I spent so much time on the rivers and creeks when I was growing up that I find them both mentally and physically intriguing and well as relaxing and visually exciting. It's a bit less of a stretch, I guess, to make an image of a stream look inviting.

The painting wasn't finished until this morning though...I just had to work on the water more; fine tune things if-you-will.

Enjoy this October "like" weather while it lasts!

Back At It...

Sand Bar Slough - July Skies
Oil on mounted canvas - 12X16
SOLD

Finally...back to the easel! I firmly believe that - yes, once you learn to ride a bike you can always get back on and do it after years have passed. BUT - I also believe you'd do fairly poorly if you don't get in any practice!

This is true of anything of course...musicians need to practice or they'll get rusty; doctors need to practice or they may do more harm than good; artists need to work or they'll find they have a lot of "brushing" up to do!

So I'm back at it once more...not because I "have" to, but because I want to...I need to; it's definitely a need and I get cranky the longer I can't get back to it!

I wasn't able to swing a plein air piece yesterday but took some reference material from a trip up to the lakes with some of the grand kids in July. Love summer skies up around the marshes and prairie potholes! The painting is of Sand Bar Slough, just off the NE tip of Spirit Lake in Dickinson County, here in NW Iowa. I believe Sand Bar Slough is privately owned but is just off the east grade of the highway and there is a little spot on the grade you can pull over on in a small vehicle. I'm not sure one could get away with doing a plein air piece there since you're not likely parked legally and I'd certainly be there a while if I tried!

I'm lucky the opportunity arose to get some time in the "other side" of the studio!

I'm also very lucky to be celebrating a great day with my great lady Georgie today, it's our 39th anniversary today! What a girl! I love her more than I can express!

Do something with someone you love this weekend!

Back to Fall

(The Medford Avenue Bridge, oil on mounted canvas, 12X16)

Smack in the middle of winter should bring inspiration for winter landscapes shouldn't it? Well I have had the urge for doing some winter landscape photography work but not painting...I'm not really sure why but maybe because I'm mentally stuck in "nicer" weather (sorry snow lovers).

One season I have never painted is Fall. Well, with one disclaimer, I painted a picture of my Grandfather picking corn back when I was 17...that was an autumn seasonal painting, but I really can't remember ever painting an autumn landscape. Thinking of that even seems odd to me because autumn was my favorite season for most of my life.

I finally finished my first fall landscape painting, it's of an old iron suspension bridge down in the Loess Hills...a location Georgie and I passed through this past fall on a photo excursion of sorts. I like old things and old bridges are kinda cool I think. This bridge has the nicest patina, an almost iron oxide red color to it and the contrast of the bridge with the autumn sky and the landscape just shouted "stop!" to us. I thought immediately that this had to be painted, so here we go.

I enjoyed this painting process...finally got to do an autumn scene and I love the color of that season so much. But I found I don't care a lot for the process of depicting man made objects with detail like this bridge; it was just too confining or restrictive...the shadow and the bridge planks were about the only liberating features. But sometimes you have to take the good with the not so fun to make something work.

*I'm not totally sure how to get back to the Medford Avenue bridge...I believe we were in Monona County at the time, but maybe our Loess Hills friends would help clue us in. Georgie and I usually keep pretty close tabs on where we are during these trips, but we were having so much fun we maybe weren't as careful that time?! (* I just located notes that Georgie wrote during that trip...see she knows what's goin' on! Medford Ave bridge is just north off of F50 4mi N and 1/2 mi E of Missouri Valley in Harrison County.)

With 30 mph NW winds howling through Prairie Hill Farm this winter afternoon at 10 degrees, I'm keeping warm thinking of sunny autumn days...