Splashing Through Life - Art by Patricia Henderson

In between puttering around the pool and garden this morning, I did a quick little sketch of a flowering shrub. I believe it's a type of Spirea, and has lots of little tiny pinkish purple flowers. I had to transplant it last year and I wasn't sure if it would survive the winter, but it seems to have recovered very well! Spirea (in my small garden journal)

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 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!

There is a short time in my autumn garden when the sedum is so striking. The leaves fade to a lovely pale yellow and the flowers turn from lavender to a deep rose. I tried to capture this with a watercolour. I haven't done one in a while and so this was a good exercise.

I'm getting close to completing my Geese Collage! When I first started this, I had assumed that these were domestic geese, but after a bit of research on the markings on their wings and beaks, I've discovered that they are snow geese. Even better! These three fellows are on their winter vacation and have found a lovely waterfront to hang out at. I just have to finish the grasses and cattails and I'm done!

I finally got started on my collage of the three geese. So far I've done the background. Next I will work on the geese themselves and then I will be adding some grasses and cattails. This is going to be a fun one!

I've had a week off work, and am nursing a cold, so I thought I'd get back to practising landscapes. I took a lot of pictures when I was in Belleville this past fall, so I thought I'd use some of those for inspiration. Here are "Early Autumn Drive" and "The Old Mill".