Some of My Favorite Things...

 "Canada Milk Vetch (Astragalus canadensis)" 

Color Pencil drawing -  © Bruce A. Morrison

I've been working on more drawings of prairie plants (grasses and forbs) and anyone that really knows me realizes I only do this out of a real love for the subject matter.  I guess I've been watching winter so long that I'm drawing for cathartic reasons!  But the subject matter this time around is one from our prairie pasture and that's the Canada Milk Vetch (Astragalus canadensis), sometimes these plants have other common names, I think Rattle Pod is one...these names usually make sense too - the seed pods do rattle when shaken about.  

This plant first showed up on our north pasture hillside over 10 years ago and in a location I had not been doing fall or spring seeding...again last year I found several plants in our south pasture, and again in locations not seeded before, so it may very well have been here before these areas were grazed years back.  Also, like some other plants I can think of, we've had some years intermittently that we could find no Canada Milk Vetch anywhere...2012, 2013 and 2014 were such years, yet last year they were "widespread" and in locations we'd never seen them.  That's very interesting to me but I have no answer to why!

Canada Milk Vetch, to me, has a very visually interesting structure...its almost graphic in quality ...although I chose to draw this plant - it would have made a great serigraph as well!  Or even a wood block!  Its a fairly common and somewhat aggressive plant - not one for the garden, but a great plant for the pasture here...I know the deer and rabbits sure love it!  (A lot of pruning going on through the summer.)

I tried treating the drawing's background a bit differently than in the past (more scribbling and less solvent), but tried being true to this forb's anatomy.  I drew this milk vetch at it's peak - which in the summer heat, lasts a fairly short time unfortunately...its a good thing there's lots of different prairie flowers and grasses out there and that they all have their specific bloom time - you have all summer to enjoy!

Spring is on the doorstep - get out and enjoy it!

Wonderful

Pasque Flowers (Pulsatilla patens) on a private remnant

Photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

 

90 degrees this afternoon here at Prairie Hill Farm...and its not April Fools!  Or maybe it is...the weather's getting a good laugh anyway. 

 

I finally got out onto some private remnants here in SE O'Brien County about 3-4 days back and was pleasantly surprised to find some more Pasque Flowers - right where they should be!  The ground is native pature that's been grazed for many years, but the hilsides are steep and I suspected, last year when I was first given permission to walk there, that the slopes looked like they should have some pasques...they were there.  Wonderful!

 

The Wild Plums are also out now...this is 25 days earlier than last year.  What else is new - everything is a month ahead of itself! Why I even just finished "mowing" the fire breaks a half hour ago on our own native pasture here and that's no April Fools either!  Never had to do that in April before.

 

We did get our north pasture burned in March...we're leavig the south pasture and the ditches alone this year though...giving the invertebrates and "us" a rest there.

 

The only thing that I messed up on is my seeding.  The weather just became so warm so fast that my planned late winter seeding never happened.  I suppose I'll try it as soon as a "sure thing" for rain is on the horizon - we've really missed out on precipitation and are listed as being in a "severe" drought here in this corner of the state right now.

 

 (click on image for a larger view)

 

Next on our agenda is hauling our "From the Tallgrass" exhibit down to the Witter Gallery in Storm Lake for the Thursday night opening and artists reception (5:30-7p.m.), the exhibit will be there through April 26th if you can't wander down next Thursday. 

 

Hope to get to see more "wonderful" things this spring - hope you do too!  

 

See ya on the tallgrass!

 

Great Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica)

color pencil drawing -  © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view) 

 

This is going to be a short double post from my studio blog today...

 

My mother's favorite color was blue.  I remember all the things she decorated with; many things throughout the house favored blue. I think of her during the year when the few blue flowers of the prairie bloom.  In the spring it's Blue-eyed Grass, in the late summer its some of the asters, (like Sky Blue Aster)...in the early fall, for me its Great Lobelia!

 

I came across a large group of Great Lobelia this past September on a hillside seepage.  I took several photographs of the plants but none seemed to do them justice, like I feel they need...so I decided to make it a fall project to do a small color pencil of them instead.  I should probably title this piece something like "Great Lobelia Blues".

 

I've not had success getting this wildflower to grow in our pasture because we're fairly gravely here, and this flower really favors a wet location.  Now I have a small bouquet of them "growing" in a frame in my studio...a nice way to remember my mother, and a late September morning on the prairie.

 

Hope you had time on the prairie this fall during those Indian Summer days!  With the weather getting colder here, I'll soon be trekking the prairie with the snow shoes on!  Not sure I'm quite ready for that though!

Hope to see you on the Tallgrass.

"Waterman Sunrise"

photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

Its fall already (!) and its been just glorious here.  Although I hate time slipping by so quickly, I'm a sucker for autumn!  I've been doing more work than prairie upkeep this year...with so much to do here in the studio, my prairie experience has been mostly relegated to exploring, photographing and painting (or drawing).  

I love the exploring part!  This year I've been very blessed to get access to some very nice places to walk and photograph.  They've all been in the "neighborhood" here...but this neighborhood is intoxicating and I'm hooked bad.

We live along the Waterman Creek in the valley here...this creek is part of the Little Sioux River shed and this river shed has been identified as one of the last large tallgrass remnant areas in this state (Iowa).

"Cattle Crossing"

color pencil drawing © Bruce A. Morrison

Top that off with the richness of cultural heritage here and its just hard to not get drawn in and absorbed.  I can only lament that I wish I'd been here and exposed decades ago!  I'm certainly not getting any younger but I haven't felt this way since I was a kid and discovered the river and creeks near my home for the first time.

I think being an artist of regional bent...a representational painter, a landscape photographer, a prairie fanatic, is all my vision desires and that is where I'm at now.  I'm home.

"Summer Evening on Waterman"

oil on mounted canvas - 9X12"

© Bruce A. Morrison

But this "home boy" needs to earn a living so here comes my shameless plug!  You can see the prairie up close and personal here in my studio/gallery at the Prairie Hill Farm Studio during the 2011 Artisans Road Trip coming up this Friday (September 30) from 4-8:00 p.m. and Saturday through Sunday (October 1 and 2) from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day!

Come see the prairie on canvas, in the frame, on the easel or here in the valley (or all of the above)!  Enjoy some conversation, drink some fresh (from here at the acreage) raspberry lemonade and eat decadent treats!  We'd love to see ya!

Have a wonderful fall - hope to see you on the Tallgrass!!!

From the Tallgrass - the First Exhibition

Big Bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) at the Prairie Hill Farm Prairie

Photograph © Bruce A. Morrison

How's the prairie where you are right now?!  The native pasture here is transitioning from mid summer to late.  The goldenrods are just beginning to tinge with blossoming, the False Boneset is in bloom, the asters are showing signs of awakening, the warm season grasses are either all in bloom or just finishing that stage.  

 

The season is progressing!  I sure hate to see things move this fast; wouldn't it be great to put the brakes on for a bit?!!  One thing I really appreciate this time of year is the insects and their music.  The Katydids are really making the afternoon and evenings seem alive!  The Robber Flies are out now again, making their raids through the grasses.  This is a banner grasshopper year here so hope the Robber Flies concentrate there some.  I've been hoping to video tape Monarchs depositing their eggs on the milkweed here...I haven't succeeded yet but have witnessed the "deed"...they're just too quick about it!  I'll get lucky one of these days.

 

"From the Tallgrass", an exhibit of paintings, drawings and photography of the Tallgrass Prairie opens on Tuesday, August 16th next week!  I'm both excited and nervous but I think that comes from spending all your time in the tallgrass and not enough around other homo sapiens!  OK, thats a bit tongue-in-cheek, but it has been a long time since I went solo in an exhibit.  Most of the last few weeks has been completely devoted to framing, re-framing, and all the other things that figure into something like this...there is so much more to it than meets the eye.

The prairie is the subject matter of course, and the prairie has been going great guns this summer - very hard to keep up!!!  I think once we get the show hung in a few days, I need to step back onto the prairie and see what I've been missing these past weeks!!!

The Exhibit "From the Tallgrass" runs through September 25th.  There will be an artist's reception on August 25th from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.  The exhibit is at Arts on Grand in Spencer, Iowa.  You can always give them a call, should you have any questions, at (712) 262-4307; they're open Tuesday through Saturday!

Hope to get to see and talk with you at the reception on the 25th (last Thursday in August)!  If not, please try and get over to Arts on Grand to see the show!

A Prairie Cantabile

"Prairie Cantabile"  Painted Violin 

(casein on applied canvas)

© Bruce A. Morrison

(click on image for a larger view)

This will be a double post from my studio blog...it relates "esthetically" to the prairie at least, and I'd like to get the word out about "From the Tallgrass", a solo exhibit celebrating the Tallgrass Prairie.

Not many folks have seen the painted violin I did several years ago, for a fund raiser to benefit the NW Iowa Symphony Orchestra.  I have a solo exhibit coming up at Arts on Grand in Spencer, Iowa, in a couple weeks and this piece will be there.  The buyers have agreed to let me show the piece once again and I will honestly say I am still taken aback by it...I can't believe how nice is looks, I'm extremely proud of this piece!  It was my first attempt with Casein as a painting medium...casein is extremely permanent...I believe it is one of the earliest painting medias in use today.

"Cantabile" is from the Italian meaning "worthy to be sung".  I sing praises of the prairie in all my works; what more aptly fits than this title for this work?!!  The back of the violin depicts the prairie as a landscape, the front of the piece celebrates the prairie "up front" and close-up.

From the Tallgrass" is the title of this solo exhibit.  It opens August 16 and runs through September 25th.  There will be an "Artist's Reception" on Thursday the 25th, from 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.  Please come and enjoy this exhibit devoted to our region's natural and cultural heritage!

I may refer to "From the Tallgrass" once or twice more this month...hope you can make it to Spencer during the show! 

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!