Author Archives: Kerry McFall

About Kerry McFall

Kerry McFall is an award winning artist active in the arts community in Corvallis, exhibiting, creating and teaching textile arts throughout the Willamette Valley. She has been a member of the roster of Artists in Education, Arts in Healthcare, and has taught Globetrotting Art through the Corvallis Arts Center. She is currently a member of the Oregon Arts Alliance, Loosely Bound, and Call & Response. Kerry specializes in adapting her original paintings and drawings to limited edition textile prints, often using satellite imagery and focusing on wildlife.

Vote for Your Favorite!

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"Festival Flyover", mixed media by Kerry McFall

I had fun doing this piece to submit for the Fall Festival poster competition.  I got to use some of the new techniques I experimented with over the last year on my travels, and it’s pretty far afield from my usual style(s).  I didn’t make the final six, but if you go here you’ll see why – there are some incredible talents in this region!  (And when you click the link, you’ll be able to vote for your favorite, which enters you to win a T-shirt with the winning art on it.)  One of the most difficult parts of calling myself an Artist (note capital A) is that I have to risk rejection daily, hourly, weekly, constantly… if you don’t put yourself out there, you don’t grow, and, well – it’s been said before: “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” My personal revision of that is , “What’s the worst that can happen?  I can spend several hours or days enjoying the creative process, and I wind up adding another image to my body of work, another style to my repertoire.”  It’s important to remember that it is your work being judged, not you, and it’s often rewarding to see who you are being compared to.  My son just recommended a very short video to me, Ira Glass talking about the creative process - it’s well worth the two minutes.

Go Ahead… Pull It Apart!

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“Dark Spring” mixed media by Kerry McFall

Grape Hyacinth is another childhood favorite, like dandelions, only these are squeaky when you roll the little round blossoms between your fingers.  And the resulting sticky stuff is purple!  Oh, yes – and people seem to object more when you pick them, as opposed to dandelions, to which people mainly object if you get the sticky stuff on the upholstery… my friend Wendy says her mother called dandelions “the children’s flower” because no one cared if you picked them and pulled them apart!

It has been a dark spring, but finally we have had a few warmer days recently.  But thus the dark background, which I quite like. Contrast is something I plan to experiment with more.

Sentinel

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“Sentinel”, by Kerry McFall, mixed media

At Baskett Slough, about 10 miles west of Salem, there’s not much going on this time of year… at least not in the middle of the day.  The geese were all evidently invited to lunch on the river, leaving the bare fields quiet and cold.  But we provided a bit of excitement for this yellow-rumped warbler last Sunday, giving him the opportunity to remind us to stay on the path, and to show off his stunning new yellow plumage.

As with most portraits, I didn’t quite the mouth right… or in this case, beak.

Gentle Reminder

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"Goodnight Moon", acrylic, by Kerry McFall

I painted this from a sketch I made in one of my life drawing sessions at Battersea Art Centre in London. I donated it to a local fundraiser for Breast Cancer Awareness.  I hope the nudity doesn’t offend anyone, but how can you be aware of your breasts if you don’t look at them?  Now, go stand in front of your mirror and do your self check.  Thanks.

Tooth of the Lion

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dandelion sketch

"Coming Soon to a Garden Near You", mixed media sketch by Kerry McFall

Much-maligned, nutritious, and gorgeous, the weeds are beginning to smile up from the soggy lawns in Corvallis.  Dandelions are the brightest: petals like a yellow mane, toothy points on the leaves, and I love that little cushion right in the middle of the blossom.  I spent many hours dissecting dandelions as a little girl, sitting cross-legged on my grandmother’s lawn caught up in the sweet scent, amazed by the “milk” that appeared on the stems after picking… and the minute my mother saw my sticky hands, I spent many minutes scrubbing away the dandelion goo.  Simple pleasures.

My New Favorite Color

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sketch of lichen

"Windfall Lichen", mixed media by Kerry McFall

The heavy snows last week brought a good-size limb hurtling into the back yard from the neighbor’s giant fir.  When I went to see the damage, I had to pull the sharp end out of the mushy ground, where it looked like it had been driven in by a pile driver… yikes.  The moral: don’t stand under trees during heavy snowfall.

I counted at least five different types of lichen, and one type of moss, growing on the limb.  Such gorgeous colors when you look closely!  And serendipity had a hand in the palette because I had just found my new favorite color among the colored pencils in the OSU Bookstore art department on the same day: Pale Sage by Prismacolor.  Perfect!

Interested in a print, or an embellished fabric print?  Buy Now!

We Thought Winter Was Over…

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March Snow, mixed media sketch by Kerry McFall

Obviously, winter had one last blast to blow at us, which is very strange for March in Oregon’s Willamette Valley.  But Snow Days are always a good time to slow down, and this one gave me a chance to add a Buy Now page to my website – if you’d like a print of any sketches, you can pay with PayPal – check it out.  Coming soon – an Etsy site with my sketches on greeting cards, and mixed-media paintings for sale!

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Mistletoe at Finley, mixed media, by Kerry McFall

Working at Muddy Creek school over the last couple of weeks gave me the opportunity to take the long way home via Finley Wildlife Refuge several times.  And the sun was shining – whoa!

Finley is my “church”, a place for quiet meditation, contemplation, rejoicing in nature even in the barest months of winter.  Huge flocks of geese rise as one with no prelude, and give voice like no other choir.  The oaks are the altars, the firs are the spires pointing to heaven.  The elk slip in and out of the thickets and meadows, the spirits of the ancestors.  Quiet pools mirror the sky in the marshes.  Bald eagles drift through now and then to remind me that there could be angels… but then just for the hell of it they buzz down over the resting geese and send them thundering skyward again.  And it turns out that even the humble mistletoe has a place in ancient myth and religious symbology, at least according to Google.  Beautiful.  My humble and sincere thanks to everyone who had a part in preserving this sacred place in the Willamette Valley.

Sheep Smiles

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sketches of sheep

"Sheep Smiles", colored pencil by Kerry McFall

The OSU Sheep Barns are literally a five minute drive up the hill from downtown Corvallis, so I’m not sure why it’s been at least 10 years since we ventured up there.  But the spirit moved us this weekend, so we treated ourselves to watching the wonders and terrors of nature at work.

The layout is a little different than it was years back – fences keep you way back, and there are lots of signs about germ transmission, and hand-washing stations… but the smell of sheep poop still pervades the cold damp air, and there’s plenty of bleating and baaing.  The lambing season is upon us, so it’s a popular outing for families with small children.  I’m convinced that lambs receive random signals from outer space which send them leaping and jumping for no apparent reason, surprising even themselves from the look of it.  “Gamboling” is just the perfect word for that.  The mother sheep look a bit dazed, but the shape of their mouths makes it look like they are smiling!

The pregnant ewes, some of them literally wider than they are high, even seem to smile… maybe they spike their hay up there, because it sure looks miserable to me.  Ah, sweet mystery of life – what a convoluted process, this birthing and dying!

A Question of Purple

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Purple Finch on bird feeder

"Purple Finch", mixed media by Kerry McFall

Many thanks to Schmidt’s Garden Center for granting me permission to work from their photographs!  This little seed-cruncher was featured in their most recent online newsletter, and I fell in love with the patterns in his feathers.  Their newsletter always has bright photos and interesting discussion, a pleasant break from a world full of less uplifting news.

I’ve always wondered about who decided to call this bird a Purple Finch.  In my opinion, it’s not purple at all.  It’s pink.  There might be a few purple shadows, but this guy is definitely pink – and yes, I did get carried away just a little with the color intensity, but I’m not striving for reality, just that zing I always get when a flash of color flies past.  The Cornell Lab of Ornithology web site says, “The Purple Finch is the bird that Roger Tory Peterson famously described as a “sparrow dipped in raspberry juice.” “  Right on!