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Winter is a time I find I speed up in "multitasking"...a word I never grew to feel akin to. It is not an endearing thing watching jobs speed by without satisfying reflection, but when winter forces more work be undertaken indoors - you take advantage of the opportunity and charge ahead as best you can.

I've been forging on with the expansion of the Watchable Wildlife in northwest Iowa website work. I've only just recently completed editing 70+ short site videos and now am in the process of putting together over 70 page templates and processing images for them. These updated changes will not be reflected in the web site until later this spring and has been enjoyable working through. I'm finding myself thinking of all the sites I need to revisit again for more prolonged time and exploration. Another side adventure going through this process is rediscovering things we came across during the summer and some of the video footage and photographs taken. When going back through months later I also see images I'd like to paint from, images that trigger ideas I had not been aware of at the time.

In February a public workshop titled "Midwinter Thaw", is being sponsored by Iowa Lakes Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D), Palo Alto County Conservation Board, O'Brien County Conservation Board and Clay County Conservation Board. This is a workshop open to the public and it's goal is to encourage more people to get outside and become involved in nature during the winter.

The announcement for this winter photography workshop reads in-part that there is a dramatic upswing in wildlife and nature viewing locally and throughout the country, and that nature photography is often the next step for many people as they become interested in our natural resources.

The number of people interested in learning about taking good nature photos is growing. Topics like picking out the right camera equipment and its proper use; and marketing and selling your work will all be covered in the Nature Photography Workshop.

There will be four professional photographers presenting at the workshop:

Don Poggensee of Ida Grove, Stan Buman from Carroll, Dan Ruf from Spririt Lake, and myself - Bruce Morrison from rural Hartley. All are from the northwest Iowa area and each have had much experience in this field. These photographers will provide insight into how they achieve success in nature photography.

The program is also highlighting the Watchable Wildlife website and project that will eventually include 13 counties in NW Iowa.

The workshop will be held at the Emmetsburg Iowa Lakes Community College campus on Saturday, February 20th. There will be a $20 registration fee to cover presenter expenses and lunch. Registration is required so plans can be made for food and materials.

To register or ask questions about the workshop contact the Iowa Lakes RC&D office at 712-262-2083.

My part in the workshop will be to emphasize the beginning aspects, equipment and field techniques. Something to think about or check out in February!

Georgie and I were able to get out yesterday morning and do a little trekking around the hills and river valley south of us. The frost was beautiful and the sky was clear...an amazing combination for winter landscapes and photography. The Bluebird Creek area photo at the top of this blog is a great example of Little Sioux River valley landscapes in the winter.

It's actually very nice out there this weekend with temps in the 20's and 30's instead of 30+ below zero! You might need some skis or snow shoes if you wander off the roads though - either way enjoy and get out there!

Even though we've just experienced our first blizzard, it's still autumn here in the valley, but it's the time of fall when all color has drained from the landscape, save the sky. The sun still lends a beautiful yet subtle magenta veil to the hill sides and high tree branches when it nears it's last breath in the late afternoon.

Autumn was once (maybe still is in many ways) my favorite time of year. I used to spend fall days walking the edges of the Des Moines River in Fort Dodge (Iowa), or even wading to Duck Island...or wading Lizard Creek for Smallmouth Bass. There is nothing quite like fishing in-stream with a pair of waders on; you feel the stream, sense it's rhythm, and smell that fall air. It's easy to lose your balance and take a chilly bath if you get caught up in your surroundings and not pay attention to what you're doing. Sometimes I felt waders were just foreplay with the stream.

The image above is from the past 3 weeks with my color pencils and blenders. It was inspired by what I have just reminisced. When you get to my age, a lot of what directs or moves you is past experiences like that. How could someone paint, draw or write about something they have not experienced, dreamnt or reminisced?!

The material for this effort was garnered far from our last Watchable Wildlife trip down to Sac County in late October. It was very windy that day...30mph and higher, not a great photography day. But, as I described back then, the landscape was wonderful. I may have one or two salvageable images from that day to use as photos down the road...I just have not had the time to process/edit yet. But the material from my files were perfect to order for a painting or drawing, and I chose the later.

It could pass for Lizard Creek, or even the Little Sioux, and even (after a stretch) - Waterman Creek, here across the valley...but it's still a prairie stream.

Drift down your stream, if just in your mind and memory...

December! I'm definitely past the ability to normally perceive the passage of time. It seems I'd think of it as still being October, except I remember October and this seems a lot nicer so far.

I was able to finish another piece in the studio this week. This is a small oil painting and is indicative of the season approaching. I rarely ever do more than one winter piece a year and when I do, that piece ends up being the illustration for my Christmas card.

I blogged about my Christmas cards last year. As I think I mentioned, this exercise in yuletide regalia started when I was 16 and in art class in high school. I think I remember doing a woodcut in class that was winter or Christmas themed, and took it even further when my mother took an interest in it...she thought it would be a nice Christmas card for the family to send out. I haven't missed a year since.

It is a bit of a stretch and stress some years, especially when our card list amounts to well over a hundred fifty...that's a lot of ink, paper, envelopes (never a standard size of course) and especially postage! I do enjoy it though...I've always liked to write old friends and relatives, it's just a bit of a rush when I end up waiting until 3 weeks before the big day!

I apologize if you get a card from me each year, I guess I just took part of the surprise out of the event for you...my bad!

Here's wishing you a nice December!

I remember the day we first moved in at Prairie Hill Farm in October. I remember walking down the gravel road on a break from remodeling inside the house, looking at the valley and the colors...thinking "this is the most beautiful place!". Aside from a couple early snowfalls the first week in October and a bad band of hail passing through (which totaled many bean fields) it was Indian Summer-like weather.

We had our first introduction to Asian Lady Bird Beetles that October. I remember framing in a new window in the kitchen...I was outside on the ladder trimming it out after we inserted it. I was covered in "lady bugs" and even had to take my shirt off and shake it out; was a very weird first time experience with these crazy bugs! Later we were scooping "drifts" of these bugs out of our buildings...this is no exaggeration, there was 10-12 inch drifts against the east walls of the future studio building.

It's been seven years now and seems like just yesterday, how can time pass by so quickly? I relived the beginnings here again recently through Woodlands & Prairies magazine. The magazine ran a really nice article on Georgie and I, our work here and my photography and artwork depicting the Tallgrass Prairie.

I've mentioned Woodlands & Prairies magazine before in this blog, it is a wonderful place to find like minded folks out there, fighting the same battle! I'd wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who is interested in passing their natural heritage on to future generations!

Woodlands & Prairies magazine isn't normally what I'd consider an "art" publication, but publisher Rollie Henkes has run features of other artists in past issues that related their work to the environment in which they work or lived.

The last issue had an article of Harvey Dunn, that great pioneer born artist of the South Dakota prairie...that issue's center peice was "The Prairie Is My Garden", a painting I've marveled at for as long as I can remember...a very emotive painting of a pioneer mother and her children, and the amazing expanse of the prairie before we nearly blotted it from the continent.

Another issue, the Winter '07 issue, had a nice article on a landscape photographer from Illinois. A husband and wife that ran a unique lumber business together. Michael Johnson, though, is also a true artist with his 5X7 view Camera.

And each issue also runs work by good friend Carl Kurtz. Carl writes and illustrates the "Naturalist's Notebook" articles...Carl's photographs have been awing and educating Iowans since the '70's. Carl's work in prairie preservation and restoration/reconstruction have influenced myself and others far and wide.

Rollie ran my Steele Prairie Dawn image for the center two page spread of the Fall 2009 issue and wove his article on us and Prairie Hill Farm Studio and Prairie both before and after the centerpiece. A humbling piece for me to read...who is this guy!! (ha!)

Thank you Rollie and thank you to Rollie's readers who've made mention of the article to me the past couple days.

You can get back issues and subscribe to Woodlands & Prairies magazine by going to the web site at http://www.woodlandsandprairies.com

Ya, it brings back lots of memories...seems like just yesterday.

Things are really getting busy and crunch time is near with the Artisans Road Trip (www.artisansroadtrip.com) nipping at our heals. The A.R.T. starts this coming Friday afternoon (October 2nd) at 3 p.m. and runs through Sunday...9 a.m. - 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

We had an opening at Arts On Grand in Spencer (www.artsongrand.org) last week with the A.R.T. artists participating with pieces of their work, this exhibit will run through October...Georgie and I had a fun time seeing samples of what others have at their studios!

I tried doing another small painting this past week and finally finished...it's a study of a Bobolink. I haven't painted a bird in such a very long time that I was actually feeling a little trepidation while trying to work through it. I hate getting rusty at things, especially those things I like.

Bobolinks aren't really "in season" right now, but I'm looking back at a bird we really enjoy here at Prairie Hill Farm and on the prairie elsewhere. Bobolinks are "grassland obligates", or birds that depend on grasslands as habitat...they need grasslands (or prairie) for nesting and forage.

Bobolinks are also a rather curious case each summer. They arrive around late March/early April, nest, raise a brood and leave. Well maybe that sounds typical of other birds? Well, sort of - but they leave each summer around July 4th...then they spend the rest of the summer traveling in small flocks like nomads, wandering from place to place with no apparent pattern. They're pretty hard to find after the first part of July, so I always miss them through the rest of the summer. My father calls them the "Spink, Spank, Spink" bird. He said he remembers them from his early years growing up on the farm back in the 30's. There would have been more pasture and grasslands back then so I don't doubt he was familiar with them. Spink, spank, spink might be a common translation of their song, but I'd say they do an extremely good rendition of R2D2 from the Star Wars movies! Seriously.

Bobolinks are also a hard bird to paint! They are very black birds...black colored birds are not easy to portray because...well...they're lacking in color. Bobolinks do have some white in their wings and their rump and a light yellow "skull cap" marking, so they can be broken up with these accents but the study I did had one back lit form the side and its a sunny setting so the contrast makes it challenging.

This study has been on the back burner for a few years...I'd really like to incorporate it into a larger piece some day but thought I'd better try it on for size before I lose the memory of it!

I apologize if it registers too dark on your computer monitor...I've actually tried bring the contrast and density range down a hair on my monitor so it would look more like the original does from under the lights I paint with in the studio.

We've been (or I should say Georgie has been) working hard to keep up with the raspberry crop here at the farm. Georgie's been keeping records of the harvest and, unless a hard freeze comes soon, we'll go way past last year's yield of 330 pints! We're almost there today and there's at least a hundred more pint potential on the canes if we can squeeze a couple more weeks out without hard frost. Last year at A.R.T., we actually let studio visitors pick their own...like raspberries?!

Hope to see you at Artisans Road Trip!

This morning was a nice replay of many mornings this summer, particularly this month. A nice morning haze or low lying fog along the valleys and streams. It is something I like to try and chase on occasion, for the effect it plays upon the landscape.

I did a painting today and the fog on the Little Sioux River was fleeting, it was gone when the work began, but there was a very light transparent veil over the water as the sun burned through the trees upstream.

This was a difficult effect I've never tried to tackle before and very transient. The inception of the piece was begun on site and the painting finished here in the studio. I tried a smaller canvas in hopes I could do justice to the fleeting impression I had of the river at dawn...but even so it is something I'd like to try more of in the future.

I don't know if I can get in any more painting before the Artisans Road Trip in two weeks, but I'll try if possible. My to-do list for A.R.T. is getting longer!

5 days till summer's end!

It felt like summer again yesterday, humid and warm. In nine days we'll have the autumnal equinox upon us and summer will be something we just think back on or ahead to.

Yesterday my oldest grand daughter, Cassie, and I were out scouting around for images. We found Garter Snakes and Red-tailed Hawks (got HD video footage of each)...Turkey Vultures and Wild Turkeys. But one place we frequent had a definitive sign of what was ahead. A saturated hillside of sumac with a couple bales tossed in meant Autumn to me. A pleasing splash of color.

The bean fields all around us are a glorious yellow; they'll only call out for a week or so yet and I should be taking advantage of them, but for now this splash of scarlet has won me over.

For splashes of color and inspiration "here and there", don't forget to explore the Artisans Road Trip (http://www.artisansroadtrip.com) coming up in just 3 weeks! It's October 2, 3 and 4th. You can start here at Prairie Hill Farm Studio if you like...be sure to stop by and say "Hi"!

I spent the day remembering summer, and occassionally leaving the studio to enjoy it as well. I worked on a new painting of my favorite small prairie river - the Little Sioux River.

It's along this stream that remains the last important unprotected and protected vestiges of the Tallgrass Prairie in NW Iowa. It's also an unruly and surprising stream...it can take you for a great ride or break your heart. I can't think of many other "rivers" in this state that are so quick to flood or constantly "banging bottom" from drought. But it's a true prairie stream, meandering through the tallgrass and hills. A pretty river, but not without it's scars. About 65-75 miles south of here it was straightened into a channel by the enterprising and ignorant minds of men many years ago, and losses it's true wildness and beauty.

Painting or photographing the Little Sioux is a great way to remember summer...it's not over yet but close. Get out and enjoy it while you can!

A week ago last Saturday I spent some time down on the Little Sioux River in the morning. I was taking pictures and video taping the first annual Prairie Heritage Center's Inkpaduta Canoe Race. It started a bit foggy but turned into a beautiful day. Race participants seemed to have had a great time too.

I scouted around a bit for picture ideas and think I may have some nice things tucked away for this winter or some other studio time...or revisit for plein air. Today though I took time to paint the Little Sioux River at Ranney Knob...a park Georgie and I first visited in Cherokee County a few weeks ago in mid summer. I revisited the river in the studio today...I liked the material I had from this summer and wanted to strike while the iron was hot. I hate mulling things over too long...the embers in my mind go cold and that's that.

The pressure is on around here and I'm scrambling to get things ready for the upcoming Artisans Road Trip up here in NW Iowa. I hope if you have any time during the first weekend in October free, that you'll stop in and say hello!

Have a great last 3 weeks of Summer!

Yesterday was a new painting day and the Little Sioux River over by Linn Grove (Iowa) was the location of choice. This area is below the dam there and there are many spots to walk along or even park on both sides, but this view was from the north side looking across stream.

I think I'm trying to do things I'm comfortable with because I feel out of touch and "shape" with the canvas at the present time - having spent so many months in front of my monitor working on websites and educational presentations, and such. I spent so much time on the rivers and creeks when I was growing up that I find them both mentally and physically intriguing and well as relaxing and visually exciting. It's a bit less of a stretch, I guess, to make an image of a stream look inviting.

The painting wasn't finished until this morning though...I just had to work on the water more; fine tune things if-you-will.

Enjoy this October "like" weather while it lasts!