Splashing Through Life - Art by Patricia Henderson

Browsing through Pinterest the other day, I saw how a lady had made her own stencils for use on a Gelli® printing plate. I am always on the lookout for things that are fun, easy, and cheap (or free!) to use on my Gelli plate, and this fit the bill! Here's how I made one: I bought some of these plastic Index Dividers from the Dollar Store: Then I drew a pattern on to a piece of computer paper. I shaded in the parts that are to be cut out, so I don't get "lost". I taped down the paper and then taped the divider over top and traced the pattern. I filled in the places that I want to cut out with the marker. I then placed the divider on a cutting mat and using a craft knife, started cutting away the coloured-in pieces. I trimmed off the divider tab: Lets try it out! Using a brayer, spread a thin even coat of acrylic paint to the Gelli® plate. Place the stencil on top of the plate and then place a cle...

Finally getting to my little art trading card for the Grumbacher Art Swap! The theme this time is coffee or tea. I dug out a really old teacup that was probably one of my Grandma's and did a really quick sketch this morning. Not my best work by a long shot, but it brought back nice memories. I remember having tea with my Grandma and my mother and aunts at Grandma's house. Sitting and listening them talk about people I didn't know, but being perfectly content. I didn't remember the teacups being so tiny though! Compared to my tea mug, this one contains about two big sips! Tea at Grandma's Art Trading Card 2.5" X 3.5" Watercolour, ink and gold acrylic. Not for sale

I've been working on a mixed media collage of this handsome fox, nicknamed "Mulder". He turned out to be a little more tricky than I had imagined, but I'm pretty pleased with the way he turned out.  Here is the finished painting, and underneath are a few of the steps I took along the way. The Watcher 24" X 18" X 1.5" Step One: The Drawing Step Two: Creating the Background, layering papers Step Three: After dripping and drizzling Clear Tar gel medium, starting to apply acrylic paint over the background Step Four: Transferring the drawing to the canvas. Step Five: Starting to collage painted paper scraps to Mulder. Step Six: Continuing the collage process. Step Seven: More of the fox is appearing. Step Eight: Almost done! Adding grass at the bottom. Step Nine: Finished!

I've been working on a collage, but  I've been going back to the Clear Tar Gel when I need a break. These are great because you can do a lot of the Tar Gel designs ahead of time and then bring them out when you feel like playing! This is one I've been working on a little bit at a time, and I don't think I'm finished yet. I like where it is going so far. The camera has emphasized the darker purple parts a bit, but I kind of like the look so I may darken some more of those passages. I'll post again when it's finished and I have a better photo. Abstract Orange Floral 20" X 15" on Illustration Board

Sometimes when I'm stuck for what to do in my studio, I get out the Clear Tar Gel Medium. What is this stuff? Well on the container of the Golden Clear Tar Gel, it says it "Generates fine lines by dripping from a palette knife or other tool." Here is a little demo I did a couple years back that shows how you can use it. CLICK HERE FOR DEMO . One of these days, I'll learn how to set up a video demo, but for now you are stuck with photos! I have a few of these on the go right now. Here are two funky flowers! Each one is 20" X 7.0" on Peterboro Illustration Board. I used Fluid Acrylic paints. Yellow Flower                    Pink Flower And here are some closeups:

Today I'm veering away from my watercolour sketches and sharing three prints I created with my  Gelli Arts®  Printing Plate . I had recently purchased some new paint, Golden Open Acrylics . They stay wet longer than regular acrylic paints and I wanted to see how they work with the  Gelli®  Plate. So,  I went out into my yard to find something interesting to use. Well, something that I have an overabundance of is Dandelions! A couple of these are combined with some fronds of a fern that I have in the house. I have to say, that I had to force myself to stop after a while! This is way too much fun and ADDICTING!  I really liked using the Golden Opens for these prints. I think I will try to put together a bit of a step by step demo one of these days here on my blog. Although there are tons of info out there on the net about  Gelli®  Printing! Click on photo to see larger

A real quickie this morning, as I had to go to the dentist! I've done a few of these rosebuds in ACEO format, but this one is bigger. It's a real girlie-girl painting. Would have been perfect for Valentine's day! Pink Rosebud 11 X 7" Watercolour and Acrylic on Matt Board

It's the dead of winter and I'm daydreaming about summer days and dragonflies. I know that it is Watercolour Wednesday, but today I've painted in a mix of Water media.  What is watermedia you ask? Well in art circles it is basically any media that is soluble in water. So it includes watercolour paint, acrylic paint, inks, dyes, etc. This tiny painting was  started with watercolours and ink and finished with a washy mix of acrylic paint. You can't see it here, but the wings were covered in a pearly iridescent paint. Dragonfly Daydream 2.5 X 3.5"

I just realized it's Wednesday and I have to do a watercolour! I had no ideas in mind so I sketched the first thing my eyes landed on. So here are some acrylics done in watercolour, hence the title. Mixed Media 3" X 5"

One morning, last summer I was surprised while driving to work when a beautiful Great Egret landed in a ditch along the road. It was early in the morning and so peaceful. I thought it would be a great subject for a painting. I didn't get started on it right away, but in my mind's eye I could picture what I wanted to do. It was going to be a night scene with a dark blue background and a white moon and the beautiful white egret standing in the light of the moon. It was going to be wonderful! Well....not so much.. I decided to collage the whole background. It somehow ended up being a purplish blue monstrosity! I had made a big circular pattern in the background that was very distracting. The bird was too small in comparison to the moon. I used all the wrong colours and papers in the egret. The whole thing was a mess. I looked at it for a few days and decided I hated it. That's when I got out the gesso. It was very cathartic to slap that white paint all over the canvas. I...

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...

I decided to work on a companion piece to "Puzzled". I had such fun with that one, I thought I'd go the same route again! You can't drive very far in the country around here without seeing one of these guys. The Red-Winged Blackbird and it's song really says summertime to me. I decided to call this one "Country Singer". The background is covered with old sheet music and the bird and cattails are small pieces of hand painted paper and a few pieces of other found papers. This and Puzzled will be entered into the Annual Desmond Juried Art Exhibition and Sale this summer.

Has it really been four months since I've posted anything? Time flies and life gets in the way of my creativity, but I've just completed my newest Mixed Media/Collage. I'm not sure why I seem to be attracted to Crows in my artwork, since lately they have been a real pest in our work parking lot. (Don't park under the tree!) Maybe it's because they seem to have real personalities and they just look kinda cool! Here is "Puzzled", 16" X 20" on canvas. This painting will eventually framed in a black "floater" frame.

Another fun thing I learned at the Mary Todd Beam workshop was playing with Clear Tar Gel acrylic medium. Taking a plastic spoon, I dip it into the Tar Gel and drizzle it onto some scraps of illustration board or mat board. This one turned out a bit messy because I was trying to do it left handed so I could take the picture! Drizzling Tar Gel You can adjust the thickness of the gel "string" by raising or lowering the spoon and/or adding more gel to the spoon. You have to experiment to get the feel of it. Once they have dried, I spray the board a bit to get it a little wet, then brush on some watery liquid acrylics, letting the paint mix and mingle.  I like to do a bunch of these and have them ready to put paint on after they have dried. They are great "warm-up" pieces...something to get you in the studio and getting your paints out. Here are a few of my recent experiments:

We've all been waiting for signs of spring lately, and they have been few and far between. This was my mood when I created this piece starting in mid March and ending in early April. The only signs I had seen were the annual migration of the tundra swans, thousand of which flew over our house daily, creating a magnificent sight. On a smaller scale, a few hearty snowdrops popped up in a sunny spot beside our house. Welcome signs that warmer weather is on its way soon! 20"X 16" Mixed Media on gallery-wrapped canvas

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. \ 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 Pai...