Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Spray Paint Some Pumpkins, Check.

spray painted pumpkins 2
Well, that's done.  Blammo! You're either ready to reap this freaky-assed harvest or you're not.

The other day I found three wonky pumpkins that were not lovely in their orange skin, but that I thought would be fun to paint.  Last year I painted one and really liked it until it exploded in revenge

hank with pumpkins

Hank painted the one on the left (not the one he is pointing to).  I didn't hand him a can of spray paint, obviously, but I had a little bit of that seafoamish latex paint left in a can from when Amy painted a table of mine, so I set him up and gave him a little brush.  He went to town.  If you want a pumpkin with lots of visible brushwork and a layered, impasto feeling, Hank is your man.  It is not the most suitable color in itself, but I thought it might set off the other green.

I let Laura spray the pumpkin on the right, it is Krylon's Ivy Leaf in gloss.  Too glossy, I think.  I did the middle one in my trusty Krylon Ivory Satin.

spray painted pumpkins

I think they are a cute trio, but as of this writing, they are still sitting on the back porch.  I kind of already have my whole front porch tableau in place, and I went with a terra cotta pumpkin on the dining table, so I'm not sure where I'm going to shoehorn these in.  Rest assured, though, I will find a place. 

I am totally conflicted about my owl. On the one hand, I love the monochromatic look that would be achieved by painting it, and it is a little dinged up (and a lot of look) in its current state.  On the other hand, like several of you commented, I think it might look flat and dead when painted, and the orange eyes would look weird on the white owl, but really blank if I painted them too.  You know?  Aargh!  I'm looking for the right lamp shade, so I think I might see how it looks with a new shade/new wiring before getting to the paint stage.

Anyway, decorative gourd season is on!  Seriously do us both a favor and read that so I don't have to link it in every post from now 'til the New Year.

Smooch.

11 comments:

Elizabeth-FlourishinProgress said...

Ooo...inspiration.

I'm going to buy a pumpkin and glitter.the.whole.thing. Then, I'm going to send it to someone I'm not fond of and hope that they open it in their living room.

You know that stuff is impossible to get rid of.

Love your pumpkins!

Elizabeth said...

Thanks for the link -- and the enormous laugh. I'm going to make myself a gourd necklace, now.

Keely said...

Dammit. I need to get decorating. Probably I should have a house worth decorating first - right now it looks like a dog exploded in mine.

(I miss my cleaners. Sob.)

Anonymous said...

Ok, so I am a relatively new reader (hi!) and am have just been cracking up about your take on things. I am sorry to hear about your table, and have to tell you that I was also once the victim of an exploding pumpkin, but it was only my 13-year-old ego that suffered, which in hindsight is probably preferable to any of my furniture. So in reading this, I read the link about the exploding pumpkin which somehow lead to me reading about the Frenemy Neighbor, and I'm dying to know if you know if she's aware of your blogging/her presence here. It seems like the obvious answer is no, but then...maybe not? In either event, I'm glad that you're willing to gossip with the rest of us, and I'm sorry that my comment doesn't relate to the lovely pumpkins. Here, we'll fix that: The pumpkins look great! Hope to get the skinny from you, and thanks for helping me make it through another work day! :)

Jenni said...

Oh, Becky. Your pumpkins are lovely. But that McSweeney's article? Oh, I'm dying. "Felonies and gourds have one very important commonality: they're both extremely fucking real."

I REMEMBER that episode of Diff'rent Strokes. Extremely fucking real.

Becky said...

Yes Jenni, this shit just got real, didn't it?

Amelia, hi! Welcome! And no, Frenemy does not know about this blog, as you guessed. Really none of my neighbors do, except for one close friend. It's my secret hobby.

Anonymous said...

I am all for some good secret hobbies!! (Wait, does that sound inappropriate and creepy?) Well let's just say that I'm all for a good secret that is actually shared with your virtual community. Good stuff. I would LOVE to have a lil more internet anonymity...as it stands, I start writing and can just hear my great aunt hitting the floor were she to read what I am actually thinking most of the time. You're making more brave though, so we'll see...

Jessica Gottlieb said...

I am missing something. Why must the pumpkins be spraypainted? Didn't you ruin a table doing this last year?

Also, I know it's the wrong post, but congrats on the hair. It's pretty.

Kelly said...

love the pumpkins. i forgot to check them out the other night. also, that link was hilarious. this reminds me of my front porch--> "I may even throw some multi-colored leaves into the mix, all haphazard like a crisp October breeze just blew through..."

Casey said...

I don't think the one on the right is too glossy at all, it looks good. They all do. You do too. Man, am I complimentary today.

We had the kids paint little pumpkins the other day and used washable paints (because of their chemical sensitivities and fumes). I think I might wash them off and let them do them again and again.

Elle said...

I love yr satin pumpkin. I got gloss paint because I was trying to not get too deep into it and I wish I hadn't because it made the drawing part of it too slippery, but whatever. I'll just try again with every winter squash that comes in the CSA box for the duration. It's going to be like, BLAMMO!