Posted March 15, 2017 by Kerry McFall

“Sweet Violets”, mixed media by Kerry McFall, prints available

My Sunday stroll took me to the Covered Bridge Path on the OSU campus.  It was the first mostly-sunny day in an eternity, and the community was out in force, mostly biking and running.  Even with the sun shining, everything was still saturated, and the violets I discovered peeking out of the old oak leaves at the edge of the asphalt were pretty soggy.   The true miracle of violets, however, is that no matter how drippy, they still send up their sweetly scented promise of spring.  Maybe we won’t all be washed away after all!

Every sketch or painting provides lessons to learn.  For this one I was fiddling with contrast, trying to push the values so the sunny bits would really pop out of the dark, wet background.

I started with just watercolors, blocking in some pale grass color and bright purples, then added black ink lines and a lot of green.  After that, I fussed and bothered over every little detail, using a white Signo Uni-ball pigment paint pen, lifting color with a damp brush, adding textured emphasis with the side of a colored pencil… until finally I decided that I needed A) stronger paper, and B) to stop fussing and bothering!

When I convert my jpg photos to gif format for web viewing, PhotoShop always provides a little palette created from the painting in a corner of the preview pane.  Being a quilter, I find these irresistible.  Wouldn’t it be fun to make a tiny quilt for every painting… ?  to hang alongside?  Maybe someday, when life is slower… HA!  Dream on.