Splashing Through Life - Art by Patricia Henderson

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. ...

I was excited a few weeks ago to receive an email from a lady who had found my art on Fine Art America . She was interested in having me paint a full sheet (22" X 30") watercolour similar to my painting "Fiesta!" Well, it has been a while since I did that painting, so I got to work composing and practising. After two failed paintings, (lets call them practice pieces!) I finally got to one I liked. The client likes it too, so it will soon be heading off to Pickering! Here it is, Fiesta 3:

I finally finished my poppy painting, and I'm pretty happy with it. It's very loosely based on a photo of some poppies in my garden. I wanted to keep this fairly loose, so I had to keep myself from overworking it by walking away, sometimes just after a few paint strokes! So for a small painting, it seemed to take a long time to paint! I have this whole week off from work, so hopefully I can get started on something else. Now I just have to decide what! Day Dreamin' 8 X 10"

A few more from the journal. I'm really enjoying sketching the flowers from my garden! So far I've done only the perennials, but as summer comes along I'm sure I'll be painting the annuals as well.

I've been delinquent in posting on my blog! I've got several more entries in my garden journal. Keep in mind these are just sketches, I usually limit myself to 10 minutes or less per flower.