In My Autumn Garden

There is a short time in my autumn garden when the sedum is so striking. The leaves fade to a lovely pale yellow and the flowers turn from lavender to a deep rose. I tried to capture this with a watercolour. I haven't done one in a while and so this was a good exercise.

Mary Todd Beam Workshop

A couple weeks ago, I attended a workshop at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts in Gatllinburg Tennessee. Our instructor was Mary Todd Beam. What an inspiration this lady is! In her 80's, she still gets excited over every brush stroke and surprise mingling of paint. Mary is a contemporary watermedia artist, and loves to share what she has learned over the years. We observed and practiced her techniques over the span of a week in the beautiful setting of Arrowmont. Mary even invited the class to her cabin in the woods where we got to see her gallery and many of her wonderful paintings.

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This is Mary doing a demonstration with her hubby Don looking on.

These are a few paintings that I did that week. The ones that I like anyway!

These two are "Strata", layers of different acrylic mediums and tissue paper.

The two above are an experiment with clear tar gel medium.

This one involves scraping paint across paper.

 And this one is a Trash Painting. It's a collage made from things we found in our trash bag by our painting tables.

If you ever get a chance to take one of Mary's workshops, go for it! You won't regret it.

Nest

While I was working on my Geese collage, I had an idea for another mixed media painting.  For this piece I experimented with using various types of paper adhered to the canvas and did a wash of watercolours to get a muted background. Then using paper, twigs, leaves, feathers and an acorn cap, I made the nest. The eggs are hand painted paper.

This was the first stage. After looking at it for a few weeks, I decided it needed a bit of  "oomph". (this photo is not the best, it was taken in bright sunshine and I couldn't get rid of the shine.)

Today I added more hand painted tissue and rice paper, and it has a bit more of the oomph that I was looking for. I might be finished. Or not. But probably! 

My Gaggle of Geese is done!

I think this is done! I just need to give it a couple coats of varnish and it's good to go! I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Honk! Geese crossing!

I'm getting close to completing my Geese Collage! When I first started this, I had assumed that these were domestic geese, but after a bit of research on the markings on their wings and beaks, I've discovered that they are snow geese. Even better! These three fellows are on their winter vacation and have found a lovely waterfront to hang out at.

I just have to finish the grasses and cattails and I'm done!

Last One in is a Rotten Egg collage WIP

I finally got started on my collage of the three geese. So far I've done the background. Next I will work on the geese themselves and then I will be adding some grasses and cattails. This is going to be a fun one!

Three White Geese ~ a Watercolour study

This morning was wet and dull outside, perfect for staying inside and sketching! I decided to do a small study in preparation for a larger collage piece. I got inspiration from a great photo on the website Paint My Photo for some white geese. So while watching the Rhythmic Gymnastics on the Olympics, I sketched these fellows heading in for a dip in the pond.

7" X 9" on Illustration board

© Patricia Henderson 2012

My newest collage painting "Our Daily Bread" and two others, "Frenemies" and "Marshland Morning" have been accepted into the 7th Annual Desmond Juried Art Show and Sale. Stop on by the Ridgetown Campus of the University of Guelph from July 22-August 2, 2012 and check them out!

Our Daily Bread

Frenemies

Marshland Morning (formerly titled Elegant Ecosystem)

Frenemies

During the spring and fall, parts of our community are taken over by crows. They tend to gather in flocks of hundreds of thousands along the Thames river in Chatham, right by residential areas. Of course this has caused problems such as the birds getting into garbage and leaving nasty surprises on cars. Some people want to get rid of them by shooting them, others send in birds of prey to scare them away.The intelligent crows seem to figure out our tactics and steer clear.

I decided on the name Frenemies for this piece. The crows must think of us as friends sometimes, since we provide them with tasty food such as garbage, and vast fields of corn. Yet we are their enemies and attempt to eradicate them.

Many people think of the crows as our enemies when they dirty our cars, but they are our friends when they eat rodent pests, damage-causing beetles and road kill. They are also a wonderful sight flying en mass at sunrise to go about their day.

This painting is also about "frenemies" in the crow community. These two groups of crows have paused in their effort to take over the world, to argue about something, maybe a tasty morsel or a tantalizing shiny object to treasure!

"Frenemies" 

Mixed Media Collage 12" x 24"

Completed today...may have some touch-ups to do, but done for now!

Three more Language of Flowers ACEO's

I did these three little cards a few weeks ago while painting with some friends. These tiny little cards are perfect to paint while chatting!

Apple Blossom "Preference"

Daffodil "New Beginnings"

Lily of the Valley "Return of Happiness"

All of my ACEO's are available in my ETSY Store here.

White Rose, Snowdrops

Two more in the Language of Flowers Series:

White Rose ~ "A heart unaquainted with love"

Snowdrops ~ "Consolation and Hope"

The Language of Flowers

I've started a series of ACEO's (tiny 2.5 X 3.5 inch paintings to sell or trade) based on The Language of Flowers. I recently read a novel by that name, and found out that in Victorian times, each flower had a special meaning and people would communicate a secret message to each other using flowers.

Here is a link to the novel The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh and also to A Victorian Flower Dictionary.

The series so far:

Tulip ~ Declaration of Love

Daisy ~ Innocence

Pink Rose ~ Grace

Chinese Lantern ~ Meditation

Thistle ~ Misanthropy

More to follow.

Oh, and you can purchase these in my Etsy store!

Hill House - A commission

Finished this on the weekend. It was my first architectural collage piece. Challenging, but worth it! Thanks Jennifer for asking me to do this for you!

Hill House 
Hand Painted and found papers on canvas

100 Followers!

Wow! I just noticed that I have 100 followers on my blog! Thank you all for taking the time to follow along, and I promise that I will try to post more often. It's been a busy New Year so far, but not artwise.  I've been busy with my hubby who had to get a knee replaced. Now that he is on the mend I'm finishing up a collage house portrait commission and I have an idea for a bunch of tiny watercolours.
Thanks again everyone!

Patty

P.S. The painting is a little doodle I did at my friend Lauren's house a couple of years ago, and I just found it in my files a little while ago. I decided I like it!