Splashing Through Life - Art by Patricia Henderson

Now that I'm retired, I have a lot more time to spend in the studio! I've been loving doing my mixed media collages, but I want to keep in touch with my watercolour roots. I've decided that every Wednesday I will do some kind of watercolour, just to practice and also because I do really enjoy it. Today I didn't have a lot of time to do something fancy, so I did this little 2.5 X 3.5" ACEO. ACEO stands for "ART CARDS, EDITIONS AND ORIGINALS".  They are also known as Artist Trading Cards. I've had some luck selling these on Etsy , which is where this little guy is hanging out. This little Baltimore Oriole is smart and doesn't hang around here when it's cold, but painting him brought a bit of warmth to my morning.

I haven't decided on a title for this one yet. It might be because most of the time I start out with a title already in mind, but this painting kind of came about by accident! I had started a really cool painting with the background a collage of road maps with a very thin wash of gesso, and clear tar gel swirled over top.  I washed on some really nice blues and aquas. Over that I was going to collage some monarch butterflies, using my pre-painted papers.... Well, the background was great. The butterlies, not so much. I hate giving up on a painting, but I went for the gusto and took a big brush and gesso'd all over it. Not really knowing where I was going with this one, I took Mary Todd Beam's favourite colour trio of Golden Fluid Acrylics: Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold, Quinacridone Crimson, and Turquois (Phthalo), and did some random washes. The crimson kind of got left behind! The result reminded me of the sun and some twigs or branches. I had recently taken some phot...