Christmas in the Gallery!

"Christmas in the Gallery" at Arts on Grand!

December 3, 2012 through January 5, 2013

It is Christmas in the Gallery right now at Arts on Grand in Spencer, Iowa!  There was an informal reception last night during Spencer's Grand Meander, and there was loads of people out enjoying the beautiful fall-like weather in December.  If you didn't get out for the opening night there's still plenty of time to get down to AOG and find some terrific Christmas buys for anyone on your list!  "Christmas in the Gallery" runs through January 5th of next year.

And join me and several area artists for the Holiday open House in Peterson this Saturday at Barb McGee's Gallery!  Another great place to find gifts for the season, and another fun drive through the beautiful countryside in NW Iowa!  We'll be there from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., hope to see you there!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Woodland Winter"

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

Its nearly Thanksgiving here!  Its definitely not winter but I posted the image above because it actually reminds me of years past in late November here in NW Iowa!  If you looked out the window or stepped out onto the studio's deck right now you'd either think it was early spring or fall...it is so pleasant out!

I took the photograph above at Woodman Hollow, a state preserve south of Ft Dodge, Iowa, along the Des Moines River, some years back.  The shot was from what you'd call a small Goat Prairie along a ridge within view of the river below.  This same ridge in the summer had a nice small compliment of prairie flowers and grasses; its a wonder the timber hadn't yet taken it over.  Looking through the branches and late hanging oak leaves, across the ravine toward the neighboring hillside of timber and sparse openings, creates a very satisfying, and almost "decorative" view of the winter season.

The photograph is also in the spirit of the coming Holiday season, and the exhibits I'm working with during the next few weeks.

Christmas in the Gallery coming to Arts on Grand in Spencer, Iowa on December 4, 2012 through January 5, 2013.

Over 20 artists will transform the exhibit gallery into a decorated shop of art gifts - from small decorations, cards, jewelry, and pottery, to small and large unframed and framed prints, photographs and paintings. The theme is just like it sounds - Christmas, the holidays and the winter season!

"Winter Stubble, Bales"

oil painting -  © Bruce A. Morrison

I'll have several brand new winter themed signed cards available, as well as 2 brand new note card collections - one a new NW Iowa Scenic Card collection of "Winter themed" photographs; the other will be a new Artwork Note Card Collection, also "Winter themed"! I'll also have several new framed silkscreen prints and photographs, as well as some winter themed NW Iowa landscape drawings and paintings available - such as "Winter Stubble, Bales", the oil painting illustrated above.
 

I'll also be in Peterson, Iowa for a Holiday Open House on December 8th. I'll have work at Barb McGee's Gallery in downtown Peterson...will be fun spending some time with friends there!

And right now I'm participating in the final exhibit of the season, with the Artisans Road Trip in Clear Lake, Iowa at the Clear Lake Art Center.  It started today and runs through January 5 of 2013...a great bunch of artists! 
 

I won't be taking in Black Friday sales this year but will be here at the studio for anyone needing to do Christmas shopping!  I don't like the idea of crushing crowds and elbows kneading their way to special buys, like on Black Friday. I Do Like giving my business to local small businesses though - that money stays in the communities we support and benefits my neighbors as well as my own family!
 

I will be open during the next day - Small Business Saturday - you can count on that!  And we do appreciate your business and support, on any and all days throughout the year!!!

I want to wish you all out there a wonderful November, and a Happy Thanksgiving!  Be good to one another and enjoy your friends and family this week and always!

  

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!