Splashing Through Life - Art by Patricia Henderson

This colourful little fellow is feeling just ducky today! The colours in this small collage are even richer in person. During these dull days it is hard to get the camera to pick up the colours accurately. I will be popping him into my Etsy shop shortly, or if you'd like this little fellow to brighten up your house, feel free to contact me directly!  Now on to my next project, I wonder what that will be? "Just Ducky" 8" X 10" X 1.5" Paper Collage on Canvas Reference photo by Shawn Parker  @ Artist Reference Photos

There are still a few hardy Black-Eyed Susans in my garden. It's lovely to see a few pops of yellow in among the fading greens and browns. The language of flowers was used in Victorian times as a means of communication in which flowers were used to send coded messages. Each flower had a special meaning. The Black-eyed Susan meant "Justice." This ACEO is part of my Language of Flowers series. ACEOs are tiny 2.5 X 3.5 inch works of art to collect or trade. They look great in a frame, or put them together to make a great coffee table book! Perfect little gifts for the art lover. Each of my ACEOs are signed or initialled on the front and signed and dated on the reverse. They are shipped in a protective plastic sleeve. Check out what I have available in my Etsy shop HERE . Black-Eyed Susan "Justice" 2.5" X 3.5"

 It's a really good time to wet my whistle after working in the garden all afternoon with an ice cold beer! Here's another one from the sketchbook...a little wonky, but who cares! :-) Wet Your Whistle! 11" X 3.5" From My Sketchbook

I have been showing my Work in Progress on this little lady on my Facebook page for the last couple of weeks. I gave myself quite a challenge, since this is the largest collage I have done so far, and the first animal that is not a bird! I think she is complete now, but I'll give it a rest for a couple of days, then take another look to make sure I don't need to make any changes. Check out the WIP on my Facebook page HERE . I used a lot of paper in the background that I printed with my Gelli Arts Gel Printing Plate , that I just love! Lots of papers from old, beat up cookbooks and storybooks were used on the cow. Sometimes, I use photocopies of the pages that I like and then paint over them, so I can use the words more than once. Cow Collage (Untitled - for now!) 18" x 24" $560 (click to enlarge) Here are a few closeups:

I've been thinking of ideas for collages, in particular ones to enter into the Desmond Juried Art Show this summer. It always has a farm/small town theme. I was looking at some cow reference photos and trying to pick out a good one. This girl had a nice face so I thought I'd do a quick watercolour study. I think I would change a few things for the collage, or even do a different cow, but this was good practice! How Now, Brown Cow? 5" X 7"

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!