"Winter at Broken Kettle Grasslands"
oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison
(click on image for a larger view)
3
weeks till Spring! Can you tell I'm counting the days?! Ha! Well I
really do not want to wish my days away so I'm not being quite that
crazy - just looking forward to what the season change will bring.
But
in the meantime I thought I'd work on a winter landscape that had been
on my back-burner for several years; I don't do winter paintings or
drawing that often and I thought what better time to get one done then
before winter ends outside the studio.
The landscape is of a Nature Conservancy Preserve
about and hour or so south and west of us - the Broken Kettle
Preserve...an amazing place to visit if you have never been there! This
3000 acre tallgrass prairie preserve has many native species that are
usually only found west of the Missouri - extremely rare or unusual
finds in Iowa. It is the home to the largest 100% pure blood American Bison herds in Iowa
as well as possibly the last place in the state with a breeding
population of Prairie Rattlesnakes. A really cool place! Thank you to
the Nature Conservancy for preserving and maintaining such a treasure!!!
Many
years ago I did a quick painting of this preserve, more in an alla
prima style (wet into wet) and I'll post that painting below.
"Broken Kettle Winter"
oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison
(click on image for a larger view)
Winter
is noticeably waning now with the increased length of daylight and the
snow melt that we're experiencing. I'd say this really reminded me of
winters back in the 50's and 60's when I was a kid...we had some January
and February thaws and many snow events...also some pretty frigid temps
off and on. But now we're hearing rumblings of early migrations
building 2-3 hours south of us and did actually have a small flock of
geese pass by this morning! Oh I love this time of the year with
changes taking place and something new every day!
"Male Red-bellied Woodpecker"
photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison
(click on image for a larger view)
The
only drawback to all this is I am too easily distracted and have
trouble staying on task inside at the easel! A couple days ago was no
exception with the bird traffic outside the window. This nice
Red-bellied Woodpecker thankfully sat still long enough for me to get a
picture! Looking forward to more distractions in the yard in coming
weeks!
Enjoying the warmup, hope to see you on the Tallgrass!
