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"

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.

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!

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

I seem to paint a lot of geese...I just find them so comical! This was a fast, little tiny painting, done this morning. I added a bow to this guy and he looks so proud! Christmas Goose Watercolour and Ink 2.5 X 3.5" (Border is computer generated) Find this cute goose in my Etsy store!

Part of the fun at the Watercolour Meet was a guessing game. We were challenged ahead of time to paint a watercolour of a scene around the Dundas, Ontario area. There were 13 paintings submitted and it was really tough trying to figure out who painted what! The winner got 7 correct.  That person got to choose their favourite original watercolour from the bunch to keep. Second place chose next, and third after that. Once the first three chose, the paintings  were turned upside down and we randomly got to choose. I was lucky to receive a wonderful watercolour of a waterfall by Ursula (Uschi) Rodrigues. Here is my submission of a little run-down shed in a conservation area: These are some of the prints that were part of the game: (Photo by Sandee McMullen) And here is the painting that I won! A lovely waterfall.

I'm busy trying to get my tulip collage done today, so I'm going to cheat this one time and post one of the frogs I did as a special order last week. Back to our regularly scheduled programming next week! (Hopefully)

It's funny how Wednesdays sneak up on me! Thankfully I had done a very quick sketch earlier this week of some of my African Violets. I've never had violets like these that are almost ALWAYS blooming! I love them. Wishy Washy Violets (from my sketchbook)

Who knew three little strawberries would give me so much trouble? After doing the sketch last week, I thought I'd attempt a collage with the same three berries. I usually do a complementary colour scheme for the background, so I went with a green background for the red strawberries. Wellll....the first green I chose was too bright and garish, so I covered it up with a more dull green. That turned out to be too dark, so did a wash of white over top. That made it kind of dull, so I added a wash of yellow. Now I had an olive green, which was kind of drab. I added some pink to tie in with the berries, which was okay....but, I wasn't really sure about it. Also the green tops of the berries didn't show up very well. So, yesterday I thought I'd start all over. This time I chose a blue background. I think I like this one better, but as usual my camera hates all things blue or turquoise, so it doesn't show the completely correct colour here. So here are the two versions:...

I had originally decided to call this "Which Came First?", but from the look on this girl's face, I'm thinking I should call it "Where Did THAT Come From?!" or "Did I Do That??" This turned out very bright and busy, but I like it. It's a fun one for sure! Which Came First? 14 X 11 X 1.5" $250

I was lazily "collaging" away this morning, when all of a sudden I realized it was Wednesday! "OMG! I'd better get watercolouring!", I said to myself. Last week, I got a lot of comments on the little tree frog ACEO I did a while back. They are funny little critters, and always look a little suprised, just like me this morning when I realized what day it was. Here is another one that I did real quick. "Party Animal" (or "Do My Eyes Look Red to You?") 2.5" X 3.5"

Last week I was challenged to post three paintings a day for five days on Facebook, and nominate someone else each day to do the same. What a fun and interesting experience that was! Not only have there been tons of great artwork posted everyday, it also got me searching my archives for paintings that hadn't been viewed for a while. One of them was a tiny ladybug, one of the first paintings I sold. I remembered how much fun she was to paint, so I thought that I'd do another for Watercolour Wednesday. Well, I enjoyed the first one so much, I did another one! They are both in ACEO format (2.5" X 3.5"). VERY affordable and collectable art. Ladybugs 2.5" X 3.5"  $8.75 each plus S&H

She's a little bottom heavy, but it only adds to her charm! This fun little collage is another in my Fruit Salad series, and as always is available in my Etsy shop , along with a growing number of other paintings. Check it out! Pear Shaped 6" X 6" $45

Phew! I've been working on this one for over a week. It's been a while since I've done a larger full collage, and I forgot how much work goes into it. But I enjoyed every minute. It's quite meditative. Since I don't have ducks and geese walking around my back yard, I've based this on a couple of fun reference photos, from Paint My Photo and Wetcanvas. This is:                                               Duck, Duck, Goose!                                                                    12" X 24"                                                           ...

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"

I'm continuing on with my "Fruit Salad" series, with a little lime. These little torn paper collage paintings are all 6 x 6" on gallery wrapped canvas. (Which means the sides of the canvas are quite deep - 1.5") They look really fun and bright all hung together. Three have already sold, but there are still two available in my Etsy shop. Lime Time Click here to see Etsy listing Here are the others in the series: Click here to see Etsy listing for Pucker Up!