Splashing Through Life - Art by Patricia Henderson

I think I'm finished with this one! Will be entering this and a couple more of my recent pieces to Eye 4 Art exhibition at the Thames Art Gallery in Chatham, ON. Great Blue Mixed Media (Torn Paper Collage/Acrylic) 18" X 24" X 1.5"

Getting closer to the finish! I find it really helps to put a photo up on the computer. I can more easily see what needs to be tweaked, or what might have been forgotten.

Still working through the ugly stages...adding one feather at a time!

A rainy Saturday, hot tea, mellow music, quiet company and collage. My perfect morning! Working on some feathers.... My companion and fellow ripper of paper.

Time to stop for lunch! (Me that is! But this fellow could be fishing for his...)

Here's a peek at where I'm at on this one: Starting to take shape!

Here is a peek of what I'm currently working on, a lovely Blue Heron. So far, the background is done and I've applied my drawing of the heron. Next I will be starting to collage! Not the best photo, but you can see the ghostly outline of the heron. Reference photo courtesy of PaintMyPhoto.com

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:

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...