Brown is Back

Corn Shock November

photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

Its well into November and I am just beginning to catch up with the business of a small art studio.  There is always the framing, website development, print work, and everything else that cuts into the actual creative process.  But that's OK sometimes...we're into the blah colors of the season now.  Even though I always think of Autumn as a season of wonderful colors...the transition from greens to rusts, reds, yellows, and orange; it eventually turns brown.  Brown is back.  A good time to get the less fun things taken care of right?

Well, I'd really like to get all those things out of the way and soon!  This is also the perfect time of year to be working at the easel and drawing board!  There's very little out there to distract a person so you can get a lot done inside. 

The image at the head of this installment is of a corn field near here many years ago while I was carrying the "big" camera around.  I shot 4X5 large format for easily 30 years or more...most of the time with a heavy old dude that I still have, a camera only one year younger than I!   I was driving south along hwy 59 one early November afternoon and passed this corn field being "shocked" (I guess you'd call it?) and pulled over.  There were a couple guys working together on the corn and I asked if I could photograph the shocks.  

The light wasn't particularly wonderful and it was pretty windy but this type of harvest doesn't occur anymore and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity.  Why they were working their hind ends off on an old, old method of putting up their corn I can't say - I just wanted to see if I could get it on film!

Its a nostalgic look isn't it; one beckoning way back to both of my grandfather's days...kind of puts a tint of beauty back into this landscape...

Brown is back, but we'll spin some gold from it when we can.

Many Thanks and New Friends!

"Tallgrass Songster" one of several works to leave the studio during the Artisans Road Trip!

8X18" color pencil rendering

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

Its been nearly 2 weeks now since the 2012 Artisans Road Trip weekend.  It was a beautiful, albeit crisp and breezy weekend, and we got to meet many new "gallery goers" as well as some familiar friends whom we had only met via our studio newsletter, this blog or through the studio's Face Book page!  It is so neat to meet everyone for the first time, with a handshake and a greeting :)

Thank you everyone who stopped by, it was good seeing familiar faces and friends as well!  I hope you had a chance to enjoy some amazing baked goods by Georgie, and thank you to everyone who came, fell in love with some works on our walls, and gave them a good home, this is more gratifying than I can adequately express...thank you so much.

I hope to see or hear from you again through the season, as I dig out of the framing work, jobs in progress and new commissions ahead.  Have a grand autumn!

 

2012 A.R.T. at the Studio this Weekend!!!

Fall colors this morning at the studio at Prairie Hill Farm!

(click on image for a larger view)

The 2012 Artisans Road Trip is finally here this weekend!!!  This is the 9th year of this NW Iowa "Studio Tour", and as far as the autumn color is concerned here - one of the prettiest I can remember!

It sounds like fall weather is actually going to be here on Saturday and Sunday, so wear your sweater and enjoy the crisp air!  The studio is heated so that's no problem :)  I don't know if anyone remembers the 2005 A.R.T. event, but we used to hold our exhibit out in the corn crib/grainery (before the studio was built) and it was 22 degrees Fahrenheit inside the crib until after noon!!!  Brrrr!  But that hasn't been an issue the past 5 years with the new studio/gallery :)  Besides, we have hot cider and so many of Georgie's specialties to enjoy!  Why do I always gain weight this weekend???!

The native prairie pasture here even looks like autumn in full glory!

(click on image for a larger view) 

The weekend Artisans Road Trip Hours are - Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday afternoon - Noon to 5:00 p.m.  

Need to get out and get some fresh air this weekend? Come to the valley here and enjoy the view inside and out!  If you like paintings, drawings and photography that is "about" the area in which we live...that is from "real" places - locations in our beautiful corner of the county, then we've got 'em!  Did you know we have the largest offering of art and photo greeting and note cards depicting NW Iowa in the region?!!!

Hope to see you this weekend!

 

The Time is Near!

"Creek's Bend"

12X16 oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

Tomorrow is the autumnal equinox...how great is that!?  Also, how weird it arrived so soon!?  I keep harping on the "time" thing...I apologize, its just a character flaw I guess...but geeze its going too fast!

Georgie and I have been busying ourselves getting ramped up for the 2012 Artisans Road Trip coming up in just two weeks...the painting shown above has been kinda hampering my efforts!  I know better than to start a painting so close to the A.R.T. weekend but you have to strike when the idea hits you, or its almost always gone for good.  

"Creek's Bend" is reminiscent of this past late June/early July when there was still water in the creek below the studio!  The summer hasn't been good to the water table around here...the creek is about a foot wide in many places now...hoping for a wet fall!  This painting will be on the studio easel for the Road Trip weekend (Oct 6 and 7) because it'll be too wet to put in a frame yet - but will still be for sale of course :)  Here's a chance to own something hot off the easel!

Next Tuesday - the 25th, the 2012 Artisans Road Trip will be holding their annual fall exhibit at Arts on Grand in Spencer, Iowa!  The evening reception is always a good one to get in on...delectable morsels and drink...and lots of good company; many of the artisans road trip artists will be present and  its a good time for a sneak preview of what the road trip will have to offer this year!

I'll have 4 pieces of work there...mostly brand spanking new.  Hope to see you there,

and keep your calendar clear for the 9inth annual Artisans Road Trip weekend - October 6th and 7th (Saturday and Sunday)!!! 

Summer's Fading

"Stream-side Cottonwood"

color pencil drawing - 6X8"

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

Cottonwoods are a prairie tree...a stream-side tree...a tree of wet or dry places, a real opportunist. As a stream-side tree, Beaver love it, its a favorite for Herons - its a great rookery tree.  They'll grow very tall and gain great girth in a fairly short time, and that's perfect for rookeries like the one just SE of the acreage studio here.

I've climbed many cottonwoods as a kid...they're perfect before they gain too much girth because by then they've tended to loose their lower branches - those you need to grab onto in order to gain some height and get to those more easily handled perches. Besides, a fat tree is nearly impossible to hitch up unless you're a woodpecker or squirrel!  I spent many a summer afternoon 40-50 feet up in a cottonwood, seated on a big horizontal branch, gazing out into the river or creek valley below...occasionally something would land nearby and be startled by the sight of me!  This was a great perch for watching Red-tail Hawks and Turkey Vultures soaring in the sky; like a "head-start" to their level.  What memories!  And I've fallen out of 'em too...but lets not go there!

The piece shown above is a small color pencil drawing I just finished.  It, like a myriad of others, is of the creek in the valley below the studio here (Waterman Creek)...I'm beginning to suspect that no other person has painted, drawn or photographed this creek more than I have!??  I could be wrong but I don't know?  Anyway I'll keep walking and exploring it and all the other area creeks and rivers I possibly can

The Cottonwood tree on the other bank was my focal point, I just loved the structure of the tree, but the sun was lighting it frontally (not an easy or preferred way to portray something) so I threw the left foreground into a "bit" of shadow to help with the composition and to give a transition to step into...the creek helps conceptually and compositionally too of course.

I like these small color drawings, they're fun to do but are not always cooperative!  

I'm trying to get ready for the 2012 Artisans Road Trip now!  Well, I've been trying all summer but now I'm down to "crunch time"  and I'm afraid I'll be glued to the studio from now until October 6 and 7 when the event takes place.  This is the ninth consecutive year of the Artisans Road Trip and it should be a great weekend!  Set the days aside if you can.  If you haven't taken one in during years past, or have yet to have visited the studio here along the valley - check the dates off on your calendar!!!

The summer is fading - take advantage of it while you can, and enjoy yourself!

For Sentimental Reasons

"Home"

color pencil drawing - 7X10"

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

I've long wanted to do something relating to our home, our gardens or yard..this is a sentimental "self assignment", you have to do those sometimes - it helps refocus and gives the old brain a break.  My drawing habits were somewhat loosened and strayed a bit here.  It may be hard to tell but this drawing isn't typical for my past color pencil pieces.  In fact, I hate to admit it...this really gave me a lot of trouble at times!!!  I think when you are portraying something as tangent as a house or entryway, it needs to stay true enough to be recognized and not become an object of critical consideration.

Georgie has done wonderful things out here in our quiet space, this entrance through the arbor and to the house was not here when we bought the place...the cottage gardens weren't here either...this portion of the yard was old fill dirt remnants and very sparse grass...that was almost the crux of it. She's got a good eye! 

There are many other side gardens, vegetable gardens, secret gardens, and other things to explore - I'll save those for another time.

Here's one for sentimental reasons sweetheart!

Racing Summer

"Morning Glow" - © Bruce A. Morrison

oil painting - 9X12"

(click on image for a larger view)

Not only have I been behind on my blogs, but in keeping up with this summer as well!  I have been working in the studio and out trekking the valley below much of the past 3 weeks since my last entry...and racing summer!!!  It is tough staying at task; too many things are tugging at my sleeve nearly every minute of the day.  The sky is drop dead amazing as I type...should I drop what I'm doing and run outside with the cameras??!  Its been that kind of a summer; so much going on and too many distractions otherwise.

The painting featured above was finished a couple hours ago.  It is not a large painting but it required every ounce of my attention. It is, once again, a painting of my favorite little prairie stream Waterman Creek.  But, as I've insisted many times before, it could most certainly be just about any little creek in the area.  This particular painting depicts a walk I took along the creek several weeks ago - this was before this summer's drought brought the little creek down to a small trickle.

I walked the Waterman about a week ago...a different piece than I had in the past, and was hard pressed to come up with even a photograph.  That mile section of the stream was so low that I almost could have walked the whole thing in slip-on rubbers and not have even gotten my socks wet!  That's "Low" for around here!  This is a summer I don't think many of us will miss - I just hope it doesn't revisit next year!!!

Summer paintings can be very difficult.  About 30 years ago I heard one painter I admired very much, say how summer "greens" were the nemesis of many a landscapist.  Summer is a season of green here, and most everywhere...green has to be tamed, or at least work with you, and that's not usually the easiest task.  

This summer morning had an impressive "glow" to it and I wanted to maintain that impression of this early hour walk down the creek. I used the creek itself as the "threshold" to bring the viewer into the scene.  I find reflections in the water as being darker than the place it reflects...that does help in anchoring a composition like this.  The small rapids breaks up the foreground some, helping keep things more interesting, and the darker shrubs in the left middle ground help keep the viewer's eyes from simply straying off the edge of the image.  The path of the composition is basically an oval or circle...about the most simple design possible in a landscape I think...just not always easy to carry out.

Breaking up the middle ground and background with a dirt embankment made it possible, in my mind, to relieve the potential monotony of the palette of greens.  A leaning toward the raw sienna in the exposed dirt created a "near" complimentary relief as well.

I hope you enjoy this painting...that the summer has been kind to you.  My heart goes out to everyone that has been racing summer, particularly if you haven't been exactly winning the race!