Winter!

 

"Hunting Moon, Great Horned Owl" - Serigraph

 

Winter really isn't officially here for another week or so but we've been deep into it now for the past three at least! About 14" of snow on the ground here so far, and snowing out the studio window right now as I type!

The serigraph "Hunting Moon - Great Horned Owl" represents this winter well so far - these owls have been looking for rabbits here on the acreage many predawn mornings lately!

 

"Autumn Along the Kadunce" - Oil Painting

I've been painting small the past few weeks...I find I am so much better at keeping my attention span focused doing smaller paintings these days, rather than dragging out weeks for larger canvases. Besides - many folks find the smaller paintings and drawings easier to find spots for on their walls! There is something about these small jewels that really grab you and pull you in closer. I chose my subjects by what has been burning a space in the back of my mind for...in some cases - years! The two above paintings are actual locations along the Lake Superior Hiking Trail system that my wife Georgie and I hiked when we used to spend time at a small cabin we built on the north shore of Lake Superior over 40 years ago. I really loved the Kadunce and the Woods Creek Trail...the Kadunce could be very dramatic; an all up hill trek with so many cool overlooks and narrow canyon walls. One really dry season we hiked the river's canyon from it's top end reaches, down to Lake Superior. There were no trails, we walked the river's bed and waded the shallow rapids...often had to crawl down the now nearly dry falls and dropping rapids; handing down my camera gear and tripod to one another as we went. A rugged wonderland up close and personal! The painting above is rather bittersweet as it was our last visit to the Kadunce 8 years ago during the fall. The night before, a damaging windstorm had hit portions of the shore and when we arrived at the Kadunce trail entrance, we found many, many large trees has blown down, burying most of the trail and accesses to it. We climbed over, under and around as much as we could until we had to finally give up, it was impassible for the most part...but we were able to access the river in 2-3 spots for familiar views that I still cherish...we may never see our old friend again and it meant a lot to still say goodbye.   "Upper Kadunce River, Poplar Clump" - Photograph    (Photograph of the Kadunce River from many years past!)   "Woods Creek, Cedar Break" - Oil Painting   The Woods Creek painting was from memories of hiking that part of the Superior Hiking Trail from back in the 90's. I remember photographing this neat little cedar log dam and having a large Basset Hound come down from the trail and check me out! It was BIG!!! Two ladies up on the path above the creek were walking their dogs and apparently let them off their leashes so they could stretch their legs. Very beautiful and friendly dogs. This stretch of the trail there was a pleasure to hike. The small placid pool created below the cedar log just stuck with me...visions of Brookies were also playing with my imagination!   "New England Asters" - Oil Painting   I haven't drawn or painted my favorite prairie wildflowers for a while and this fall was really a banner year for the asters here...the largest and showiest being the New England Asters. This was a fun small study celebrating this fall's pasture bounty! I really love the prairie pastures here at the studio and would have to live to be a 100+ to cover even a portion of our beautiful native prairie plants and wildlife here.   "Monarchs Nectaring on New England Asters" - Photograph   Never tire of the beauty here around us - Monarch Butterflies here in the pasture this summer and fall...nectaring on the New England Asters - fueling up for their trek south to Mexico for the winter ahead! "Cedar Waxwing - Portrait" - Color Pencil Drawing   With the holiday season we're offering new works to clients...the small paintings just finished will hopefully find homes and many more works here in the studio as well! Along with these come some customer requests and one I just finished for a bird art collector here, is another of my life-size bird portraits - this one a Cedar Waxwing! Gorgeous little birds that we cherish anytime they show up on one or more of our berry bearing trees or bushes here! And we do have other life-size bird portraits available for your holiday giving or even your own personal collection! If any artworks here in this newsletter, or on the current works or prints pages of my website, strike your fancy, just contact me or purchase from the page via the shopping cart available there ("add to cart" link). (Artworks available are all listed under the header "WORKS"...under that header, two sections have artwork for sale - "Current Works" and "Studio Printmaking".) Linked here - https://www.morrisons-studio.com/works For prints or photographs, my Fine Art America (pixels.com) pages present both my available Photography and Artwork (Paintings and Drawings) - all available in many forms of prints and merchandise...everything from posters, prints, canvases, fabrics, bags, puzzles, throw pillows, iPhone cases, cups...ya, you name it! Linked here - https://bruce-morrison.pixels.com/ This is where I now refer clients for prints or reproductions of my work. I have ordered many items from FAA (Fine Art America) for different galleries and venues, and have found FAA's offering to be very satisfactory! After more than a couple of decades of printing my works for the purposes of prints and canvas sales, I have decided to give this process over to the Fine Art America "Print on Demand" (POD) service they offer...I have actually been represented by FAA for nearly 20 years, and would recommend them to anyone wanting a print or canvas or whatever item of my Artwork and Photography! My Studio web site morrisons-studio.com has been my Studio web site for over 2 decades now and will remain so into the future. It is through my Studio web site that I can introduce new and past works, discuss how I work and my subject matter, and make my original paintings and other original artwork available to my clients. It is also the platform from which I will continue to offer you a more personal insight to my work here in my Blog!   And thank you for that - for visiting through the studio's Blog! I hope you'll continue following along! And if there's anything you'd like me to talk about or share - please feel free to contact me! (info@morrisons-studio.com)    Until next time - be good to one another, we're all in this together!    Hope to see you on the Tallgrass!

Winter Prairie Musing

This is somewhat of a double posting from the studio, but not completely cut and pasted per-se.  It really hasn't seemed like a "long" winter here at Prairie Hill Farm.  Georgie and I have been extremely busy and that helps, doesn't it?  But the Tallgrass has been on my mind nearly every moment, I just can't, nor want to shake it.  

My seed from last year's harvest is waiting patiently to stoke up the road ditch this spring.  I wanted to get it in last fall but the weather was very uncooperative!  I hope this spring planting works as well as the last...sometimes I find the fall seeding to come out the best.

Most of my time has been spent painting or drawing the prairie, and doing studio business.  This summer I have a solo exhibit over in Spencer at Arts on Grand, I'll send out more info on that down the road.  It has put me under the gun to produce this winter; the exhibit title is "From the Tallgrass" and I'm working with the prairie as I have the past several years.

"Tallgrass Songster"

8X18" color pencil rendering

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

I finally finished a piece that is about the third attempt to an idea I first got 6-7 years ago.  The "star" of this drawing is a male Dickcissel belting out it's name, in song form, among the Tallgrass Prairie in bloom.  The bird is taken from a study I did, which is now in the permanent "drawing collection" of the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin.  I have been trying to find a "home" for my study and this is my first "finished" attempt to see if I have!  The foreground is a mix of forbs in a prairie remnant near us that Georgie and I often explore.  The Echinacea (purple coneflowers) are of our county's true native population - Echinacea angustifolia, or "Narrow-leaved Purple Coneflower".  The male Dickcissel is proudly belting out it's name, the call from which the bird was named (virtually sounds like Dick, Dick, cissel).  This is a larger piece for me with color pencil...I find the medium can be exasperating at times and generally stick with small studies instead...but I persevered and finished it this week.

"The Ritter Elevator"

11X19" oil painting

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

Another work finished earlier, was an oil painting that was "kind of" different for me; it was a commissioned work done for a client commemorating (if-you-will) her trips to the grain elevator with her father, back when she was a child.  The elevator is one I'm very familiar with, have driven past and around it for 30+ years.  What I didn't know were some of the history and stories behind the "Ritter Elevator" - was fun to research and depict the elevator during the early 1950's!  The red IH box truck was my client's father's truck.  I took the rest of the vehicles from the area and other sources...the red tractor is my neighbor's father's Farmall "M" and their flarebox wagon (did repaint that a different color though).  I do like doing work depicting the agricultural environment/landscape and felt this was actually a good fit.  I've said it before and will likely again - the Tallgrass Prairie made this state what it is today and without that natural heritage, we would not have that "black gold" the prairie gave us - the soil.  After handing the painting over to it's new owner, I asked her if I could have permission to share it with you here - she was very happy to!

My first "Morrison's Studio Newsletter" (Vol.1, No.1) went out this week!  If you'd like to sign up for it, there's a link to the form right along the sidebar to this blog...if you get this blog via e-mail you can go directly to the form by way of this link -

http://www.morrisons-studio.com/Newsletter%20page.htm

The Tallgrass up here is still under snow and ice!  I'll just keep working on it here in the studio...makes the time I can be outside all day come quicker!   Hope yours is thawing and growing soon! 

See ya on the Tallgrass!