Too Fast!

 "Anvil Across the Valley" 

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

Too Fast!  Time...that's what.  It just turned summer and we're already into August!  Frustrating isn't it.  I'm blaming deadlines, appointments and other inevitable things that make time blow by like it didn't even happen.

I've been trying very hard to balance time in the studio with everything else and although it hasn't been easy, have managed to finish a couple things.

The top image was something with some years behind it...first as a panoramic photograph about 6-7 years ago - then a small oil pastel "study" 2 or 3 years back...now, finally I've done a larger completed oil painting version of the scene!  This is looking due east from our acreage and across the valley in front of us.  A late May/early June evening  with the light casting long shadows and the stubble out front still showing through a new emerging crop.  The anvil of a distant late spring thunderstorm dramatically lit by the late sun...a beautiful sight!

I had a beautiful dark expresso stained plein air style frame custom made and handcarved for it - it's perfect!

"Showy Tick-trefoil (Desmodium canadense)"

color pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison

The color pencil drawing of the Showy Tick-trefoil was inspired this spring when I was out in our pasture photographing new plants coming up - these guys are always a treat to see new and I couldn't resist trying to depict one arching back and supporting new blossoms...the leaf structure teamed with the budding flowers was very attractive!  These flowers are easy to procure seed from later in the summer - just walk through a stand of them with a sweatshirt on and the seeds stick tight to the clothing...then sit and watch TV while you pull them off and save in a paper bag for fall planting!  They are very easy germinators as well and the plants can be very beautiful in mass!  

So much more to get done this summer - but its flying by, literally.  If something doesn't change around here, I'll be staring at the late summer and fall asters soon! 

Hang on before its gone!

 

Late Spring on the Prairie!

"Passing Prairie Showers"

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

 

June never seems to let us off out here on the prairie.  We sure appreciate the rain but high winds, lightning and hail are the things that keep us on our toes.  As I type this blog entry a good thunderstorm with high winds is passing through the valley.  A few areas of tornado activity are forming NW and NE of us - nobody needs that!

 

But this painting I just finished really depicts the "normal" passing showers that are so common out here in that great openness of the Tallgrass Prairie.  I used our south pasture as the "model" and borrowed some patches of Golden Alexander in bloom, from the north pasture to place in the shadow cast in the foreground during the late afternoon.

 

Late Spring and Summer paintings can be difficult because of the overwhelming greens out there so I like to take some artistic license and warm up the image with the late afternoon sunshine and neutralize it a bit with foreground shadows.  It was a bit warm the day I laid this idea out but even hotter (mid-upper nineties) while I painted in the studio - thank goodness for air-conditioning!

 

Hope you're staying safe and keeping cool out there!

 

 

In Our Own Backyard

"September Summer"

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

As I work trough a difficult painting here in the studio, I've been reflecting a lot on the amazing opportunities for work right here in our own backyard - literally!  I looked back in my files and found so many paintings, drawings and photographs, that I wondered if I shouldn't break things up a bit...I can't show everything though, there just isn't enough space, even in a blog.

I'm just going to throw out a few paintings and drawings that originate right from our small acreage...the image above is from our north pasture - looking north onto the neighbor's ground; they had just mowed some alfalfa and the colors of September prompted me to do a painting.  This was the first painting I had done after we moved here many years ago and I considered it a milestone for me; I've been working more in earnest here ever since!

The following images are both early years here at Prairie Hill farm, as well as fairly recent.

"Late Summer Afternoon" 

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

"Summer Evening Formations"

color pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison

"June Rains Past" 

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

"Summer Pasture" 

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

It pretty easy to see that clouds are an important element in my work done here on the acreage.  They certainly are where the landscape is concerned.  As I've said more than once in the past, the clouds are our mountains out here on the prairie, and the sky is very big here!

But there is more inspiration here in our back yard than just views of the landscape around us -

"Iris Study"

color pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison

"Home"

color pencil drawing - © Bruce A. Morrison

Whether its the house, yard or the adjoining landscape, this place hasn't just kept me busy - its inspiring!  

I'll get back to work on my studio painting for now again...I needed a break.  Next time I'll share some photographic inspiration here at Prairie Hill Farm; until then - stay warm and keep inspired with what may very well be right outside your door!

 

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...

A New Year!

2009! Wow, I'd like to say "Where did 08 go?", but I don't believe I'll miss it too much...it just feels good to move on at this point. Not that I would ever wish time away (I did that too much when I was young), but there does come times when you really feel you need to look forward...just be thankful and mindful of the past year, it's blessings and bumps.

Georgie made a New Year's resolution to "just have fun each day" - I like that! I guess I won't worry about not having an original thought and just agree with her! It's funny how we take ourselves so seriously all the time and then, sooner or later find that it's just not working out. Enjoying the small things along the way would be a helpful boost for anyone through the year...I'm going to try and stay more in tune to that thought...nudge me if I forget!

Happy New Year!

Road Trip!

Georgie and I packed our bags for a road trip this weekend...it was short but long deserved as far as I was concerned! Too much work makes Bruce a dull boy. I needed some winter painting material too and hadn't been down the Loess Hills in Western Iowa for some years, so that's where we headed.


Even though the color of autumn was fading, the hills are usually good for nice pockets here and there plus the landscape has much physical character. You can always count on the prairie ridges (the grasses) for color though - without fail!

One area we always go through when we're in the Loess Hills is the area of Preparation Canyon and further north. It was very windy when we went through on Saturday but not nearly as bad as today! (Gale force winds sustained at 40mph and gusting a lot higher)

With real windy weather I rarely come up with publishable images, but they give fodder to work with on long winter days and nights in the studio. Winter - yikes, lets hope for a "long" fall first!