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...

It's a wet and windy Wednesday today. A perfect day to be inside and sketching a little bit. Today the first thing my eyes landed on was my vase of watercolour brushes.  I thought they looked like a nice bouquet! Bouquet of Brushes 5.5 X 3.5" In my sketchbook NFS

Maybe it is appropriate that my last painting of this year is of a crow. According to some legends, the crow can be a sign of change. We are changing from the old year to the new, and that always comes with the expectation of changes, hopefully for the better. Wishing you all a Happy New Year full of wonderful changes, new beginnings and the comfort of things that we want to stay the same. Family, friends, and home. Patty A Sign of Change 5" X 7" Watercolour, ink, coloured pencils (Click on picture for larger image)

I've been participating in the Grumbacher Art Swap , where every month a new theme is chosen and artists create a small ATC (art trading card), send it in to Grumbacher and they swap it with another artist's card and send it back to you. They give you a punch card, so after every three swaps you receive a reward of paints or brushes etc. The first one I did was very fun and I received a nice card in the mail the other day. I was excited when they announced the new theme until I saw it was SELF PORTRAITS!!!! OMG!!! I have never done a self portrait, unless you count the time in a drawing class I took and that one was promptly destroyed! But I thought this would be a good way to stretch myself outside of my comfort zone. It sure is doing that! Not only is it a portrait, which I haven't done for a long time, but a selfie! And not only a selfie, but a teeny, weeny, tiny one! So....after a couple of attempts which I won't show you, here is something that kinda resembles me...

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:

A good friend of mine introduced me to   Brusho®   Paint crystals the other day, and a group of us tried it out. It sure was fun experimenting with it and figuring out all the ways that it can be used! What is  Brusho®  you ask? Click on this link from  BrushoSecrets.com and it will tell you all about it. Basically it is powdered pigment crystals.  You can sprinkle it on dry paper and then spray with water, or sprinkle the dry powder on wet paper, or mix with water and paint like watercolour. Each method gives you a different effect. When the crystals react with water, they burst with colour and spread out in interesting patterns. Out of the several experiments there were only two that came out worth posting here. For the first one, I drew the shape of the flower and then painted it with plain water. I then sprinkled the water with  Brusho®.  I ended up with quite a wild Coneflower! I did add very small touches of watercolour when I got home. ...

This past weekend I attended the Ninth Annual Wetcanvas Watercolour Ontario Meet, which was held in Dundas Ontario. This is a bunch of artists who met on the Wetcanvas website over the years and have become good friends. The weekend usually consists of a watercolour workshop and various other demonstrations, lots of good food and conversation, and tons of fun! This year, my friend Charlene McGill demonstrated how she paints glass jars in watercolour. She is an excellent teacher, very patient with all of us! All of the paintings turned out great. Mine isn't quite finished yet, but I did get over my fear of painting glass! While Char was teaching, and when people had a free moment, I demonstrated some Gelli® printing, which we also played with the next day to make covers for some fun books Char taught us to make. More on that later! Here is my mostly finished painting: Char's Jars Char demonstrating her techniques: And the "Wall of Fame", al...

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

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"

Today I thought I'd do a quick watercolour sketch of a bunny that was visiting our yard last summer. As a pure watercolour, it's a failure, because I couldn't seem to keep my hands of the ink pens and even had the oil pastels out! Anyway I did get a bit of watercolour practise in, even if it's not a total success. S ummer Friend 5" X 7"

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...

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:

At the Mary Todd Beam workshop, she showed us an easy way to make stamps. All you need is a small section of foam insulation that you can score and break into small pieces. From a craft or dollar store get some of the thin craft foam that has the peel-off backing. You can cut shapes from that and stick on to the pieces of insulation and voila! A stamp! I used some of these to stamp patterns on some paper to make collage material. I stamped the pattern first and then applied watered down acrylic paint. Fun!

I thought I had finished this piece 2 or 3 years ago. I had entered it into a show, but it was rejected. It's been hanging on the wall in my studio ever since, mocking me. I had just finished another piece ( Corny ), and I had all my collage materials spread out in front of me, so I started adding to it. I'm  much more happy with it now! And thanks to my good friend Lauren , it has a great title! I've already entered it in the show show where it was rejected before. I'm figuring there will be a different juror, so we'll see what happens! Here it is now: And how it was before: The Aftermath!

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...