Daily Archives: April 16, 2016

Pig Latin

chicken wth quilt border

“Chicken What?!”, mixed media by Kerry McFall, based on photo from Schmidt’s Garden Center, with permission

My favorite garden center (Schmidt’s of course) published a photo of a chicken  that simply begged to be painted.  I chuckled the whole time I was playing with it.  My resident critic/husband walked past and said, “That really cries out for a caption.”  High praise from Mr. Symmetry!

How about: “I speak Pig Latin, ya know!  And someone clearly just said Icken-Chay Umplings-Day”!!  Then again, a face like that pretty much just speaks volumes on its own.

It also seemed to cry out for a quilty border, so this is a fun way to keep my quilting traditions alive but not have to get out the sewing machine!

I’ve done some chicken sketches before (Chicken Duty, Chickens Do Not Like Firecrackers, Technicolor Betty) but I think this is going to be one of my all-time favorites.

Coffee and Decisions at Schmidt’s

sketch of flower starts and coffee

“Decisions, Decisions…”, mixed media by Kerry McFall, $25 print

Osteospermum African daisies are among my favorite plants for my Pretend Porch.   The builder sadly forgot to add a front porch back in 1939, so I set my big metal glider chairs out there with a little side table.  Add a bottle of wine and lots of clay pots filled with bright flowers and you’ve got a pretty good substitute for a porch, especially when it comes to keeping in touch with the neighbors!  Porch season is not in full swing yet, but we’re getting close.  It’s about time to decide on a color theme for this year’s porch…

So I walked to Schmidt’s for my morning exercise walk, lured by their emails promising coffee and a new shipment of flowers.  I sipped my Mexican something-or-other brew (just coffee, no extra calories and a good rich color compliment match for the bronze daisy ) and painted for an hour. The front runners this year are the “Serenity Bronze”, which is a deep rich orangey magenta-ish glowy wonder, and the “Blue-Eyed Beauty”, which is actually not a bit blue but rather magenta-ish and lemony yellow and matches the color of the house a bit better than bronze…

I decided not to decide today.  Anyway, I couldn’t very well carry all those plants back home in my backpack.  Now I have to go back tomorrow – oh, Dear!