“Autumn Pick Me Up”, mixed media by Kerry McFall

It’s been a long, hot August, and I for one am glad that it’s just a teensy bit cooler and the days are just a little shorter so I can get back out into my garden.  Everything looks tired – the cucumbers have had powdery mildew for awhile now, the sunflowers got so heavy they tipped themselves over and right out of the dirt, tomatoes are sprawling… all of this probably partially due to benign neglect on my part, I have to admit.  So this morning I wandered out and did a little trimming here and there, pulled up a few pathetic specimens, and rewarded myself with a trip to Schmidt’s Garden Center.  I returned home with a glowing golden chrysanthemum, two purple asters, broccoli starts, and some baby onions marked “Candy” on the label.

After doing such picky details in my last sketch (Buzz the horse) I decided to loosen this up a little.  The paper curled because the sketchbook really isn’t intended for watercolor, but it will lay flat once I close the book and put it under some weights.  I sat out back in the shade of the neighbor’s fir tree for a couple of pleasant hours working on this, and finishing one of the paintings from my plein air class (below).

I still don’t really like this one… somehow yet another view of local landmark Mary’s Peak just didn’t appeal to me.  I tried incorporating words, I tried inflating the silhouette, there’s about a dozen layers of colored pencil and ink and china marker, but… meh.  Oh well.