Tag Archives: mixed media

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.

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!

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!

Searching for Spring

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sketch of helleborus

"Helleborus Orientalis", mixed media by Kerry McFall

My up-the-street neighbor’s sidewalk border is a gorgeous mish-mash of last autumn’s brown leaves, a stump covered with fungus, and deep purply-red helleborus orientalis.  At least I think that’s what it is – unlike the few crocus in my own border, it is not shyly peeking out with the baby slugs.  It’s just Out There, waving in the wind, defying the spring snows, clearly saying, “Here I am if you’re looking for spring!”  Thank goodness, we’re all ready for some color!

I’ve been heads down busy with a school artist in residence quilt project, finishing the last of my Call and Response pieces for the “unveiling” coming up on Sunday, trying to keep up with the Art Journal class I was taking from Lauren Ohlgren, and of course, work.  So it was nice for a few hours this afternoon to put it all aside and simply sit at the dining table and sketch and paint.  I didn’t even notice that Sparky had jumped on the table and was lapping up the lavender-tinted water where I cleaned my brushes… goofy cat.  I guess she’s ready for some color, too!

Sushi

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sketch of sushi plate

"Sushi", mixed media sketch by Kerry McFall

I don’t really care for sushi, but I admire the way it is often presented: fresh bright colors, lots of salmon pinks, avocado greens, soft sticky rice.  And the shine of the sauces makes me want to stick my finger in the little puddles – raw fish leaves me cold, but I love those salty-sweet sauces!  Speaking of shine, I need to find a better solution than this for adding highlights “after the fact” – I’ve never had much luck with masking fluid, but maybe I need to go buy a new bottle.  That Chinese white watercolor that was handy just doesn’t make the highlight look as liquid and lovely as I had hoped.

Leaning more…?

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"Redwood Components", by Kerry McFall, mixed media - digital image

One of the big trees in the park across the street seems a bit out of kilter lately – the left side branches droop while the right side reaches skyward, and although I think it has always listed a bit to the south, it seems more pronounced.  I wandered over there a few days ago and picked up bits and pieces of bark, scaly needles, and cones while I talked to my neighbor about my suspicions that it wasn’t as healthy as it could be…

But leaning or not, the cones are beautiful.  They look like rosettes if you regard them point blank.  The old ones – last year’s? – are swollen to twice the size of the newer cones, black with moisture, rich with moss.  My sketch is an exercise in turning the shapes into graphic representations – the motion of drawing the needles became like a decorative embroidery stitch, which I really like.  The little border cones would make nice decoration for… well, who knows?  So I fiddled with it a bit in Photoshop, added some triangles, used the Texturize tool to add more of a fabric look… and voila, fodder for a fabric design perhaps?

February “Bouquet Garni”

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"Gerbera Daisies in Under 40 Minutes", digitial image by Kerry McFall

Bouquet Garni is usually a bundle of herbs used to flavor a soup or stew, I know.  But on Friday I needed something to fill out a bunch of leggy Gerbera Daisies that I picked up at the grocery store (funny how you get them home and there don’t seem to be nearly as many blossoms once you take that wrapper off), so I ventured out into the bog in my backyard in search of greenery.  I found several stems of slug-chewed mint, one twig of rosemary long enough to hold its own, and some glorious purple-veined Swiss chard… not too bad for the gloomy depths of February.

I spent the next 40 minutes breathing in the herbs and splashing on a watercolor base, then filling in with colored pencil.  It was bright and colorful, and after an additional 10 minutes in Photoshop I pronounced it “done”.  Anybody need cheering up?  Here ya go!

Surprise!

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orchid sketch

"February Surprise", mixed media by Kerry McFall

When this orchid showed up last summer, I would have given you good odds that it would be in the compost heap by Christmas if not before.  It didn’t even have a drainage hole in the bottom of the pot!  …So here it is February, and it’s not only alive and kicking, it’s blooming beautifully!  The inescapable conclusion is that orchids thrive on neglect.

The purple is almost effervescent, with just a touch of peach and lime.  A lovely surprise, and a simple subject for a quick sketch.  It’s fun to choose a couple of colors and begin sketches with a splash of watercolor before I make any other marks, then figure out how to either work around the splashes or work them in to the forms.  The watery “bleeds” of the green into the purples made the perfect segue into moss.

Got Clippers?

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"February is for Pruning", mixed media by Kerry McFall

February is a good time for sleeping in, especially if you’re a groundhog, or a cat.  (I suppose that ”sleeping in” is kind of a misnomer for cats because it implies actually getting up at some point in 24 hours.)  If you have a garden, standard wisdom is that February is also when you need to get off your buns, grab your clippers and the bucket, and get out there and prune!

For our two baby fruit trees out front, it almost seems a shame to snip those plucky little branches, but I know from experience that they are way too skinny to manage the wieght of Asian pears, so snip I did.  Then I tackled the herb pots, and I even dead-headed the hydrangea.

I brought one of the pear branches in, and a lacy blossom to sketch.  The pear “stick” is full of color – wine-red buds, green-gold bark with ivory blisters.  But the blossom is a literal ghost of its once brilliant blue self, papery, stained with mold and mildew, translucent.  Even so, it’s lovely, and now I’ve accomplished two things today – pruning, and a sketch!  It feels good.  Who knows, maybe I will get the snow peas planted this year!

 

A Rare Day at the Oregon Coast

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"Cape Arago", mixed media by Kerry McFall

Thanks to a tip from a co-worker who lives at the coast (Thanks, Ken!), our trip to Coos Bay turned out to be a sight-seeing Bonanza.  He suggested we drive past the Shore Acres State Park a ways and look for sea lions on the rocks.  It sounded like a good way to spend a few minutes, and Griff loves to try out new roads.  It was gorgeous, and we stayed for several hours, believe it or not, actually BASKING in the SUN!  Yes, Oregon in January – and the wind wasn’t blowing, and the sun was shining.  Hundreds of sea lions bobbed up and down in the surf , and as I sketched I was buzzed by a hummingbird several times!  At one point I saw a white plume that may or may not have been a whale blowing – people with binoculars thought it was, I wasn’t sure that my imagination hadn’t embellished it a bit.

After that sunny interlude, we drove back down to the botanical gardens at Shore Acres, where I was able to sketch the old gardener’s house, built in about 1914 by the very wealthy Simpson family.  They graciously donated their entire water’s edge mansion and grounds to the state in the 1930′s.  There wasn’t much in bloom this season, but lots of hopeful daffodil points were beginning to poke up, and a few industrious bees buzzed around the sun-warmed heather near the entrance.

"Shore Acres Botanical Gardens", mixed media by Kerry McFall

The weekend was over too soon.  Sunday the January weather returned and we drove home in the rain, stopping for lunch at the Gingerbread restaurant in Mapleton.  I remember stopping there with my Dad as a teen when he took me fishing with him on the Siuslaw River.  I sketched, he caught salmon – or not, but we both enjoyed just sitting on the river, watching the world slip past.  I was pleased to see that the same souvenir plates line the shelves above the windows, and the 1960′s decor is pretty much intact… what I didn’t expect were the cowboys at the next booth.  Cruel spurs, ten gallon hats, long knives on their belts, they were the Real Deal.  I wish our friends from Botswana could have been with us to see this little bit of Americana!

"Gingerbread Cowboy", pencil sketch by Kerry McFall

It’s not my best effort at perspective, etc., but frankly, I was afraid they might not take kindly to being sketched, so it was a rush job!