Cath Sheard Art

Author: Catherine Barker-Sheard

  • CJS17 day 2

    Day two was about being inspired by the work of Mystele Kirkeeng. She mixes outsider art with folk art and it’s amazing! Her work uses lots of layers, collage, bright colours and mark making, and she often works over the top of an existing work.

    In the same spirit, I worked over the top of a page I’d never finished and added lots of collage elements before doing the self-portrait in outsider-ish colours and adding symbols I love, such as the feather and flowers. I also painted the negative spaces in blocks of colour, something I don’t normally do, and love the effect. Although the self-portrait is pretty ho hum, this work feels like a real step forward because I love the way the background turned out.

    BTW the word ‘shrinking’ and the text to the left of my body relate to my weight loss of around 37kg so far. Now that I am not so sick I am starting to feel the positive impacts of the weight loss (finally!).

    day-2-mystele 

  • CJS17 Day 1

    I’m doing Creative Jumpstart 2017; I’ve done CJS before and am excited to be doing it again. Because it’s a paid cass, I’ll be sharing what I’ve done but not the step-by-steps (in fairness to the tutors). These pages started with a black backround, and have stencilling and Gelli printing on packing tape, as well as the lyrics of songs by HIM.

    21

  • Starting the year by crafting

    Today I sat down to finish the Documented Life project for 2016. I enjoyed being part of this, but found this year’s format suited me less than the one in 2015 so ended up doing my own thing a lot of the time. No great surprise there, really… People angst about having the right folder or doing it the right way – it’s art & craft, there is no right way! Just enjoy creating and stop fussing so much.

    The creators of DLP have decided to move onto other things so Mixie has started a Life Documented Facebook page and I’ve decided to join in. No doubt I’ll ignore the prompts and do my own thing again, but it’s good to share ideas and encourage others along the way.

    Shown are the last page in my DLP16 folder and cover page and monthly divider for 2017, which I am using the same recycled Smashbook for. 

    dlp-final-page-2016ld17-cover-pageld17-week-1

  • As 2016 ends

    As 2016 draws to a close, it’s time to think back on the year that was. As is often the case for Tony and I, it’s been a mixed bag. He had surgery at the beginning of the year, and is likely to have surgery early in 2017, and I had surgery in September then got very sick. He and Ailsa nursed me, which I am grateful for. It took ages for the fence to be repaired after a drunk driver crashed into it, and the roof leaked again!

    On the plus side though, we have our own home, I have a job I love, we have a few wonderful friends and two pets we love dearly. I’m grateful we live in New Zealand where we can feel safe, despite being worried about what is happening in the world. I’ve lost over 35kg so far and am finally starting to feel well again. More importantly, after 24 years together, we remain as much in love as ever and are each other’s biggest supporters.

    Here’s to 2017; I’m looking forward to a year of loving work, loving Tony and loving our life.

    new years eve 2017

  • Making cards

    I wanted a couple of basic cards to send off this week. The ‘awesome’card uses the ‘you = kind’ stamp and die set from WPLUS9, Copic markers and clear Wink of Stella for a little shimmer. The cat card uses Dyan Reaveley stamps, Tim Holtz distress inks, StencilGirl stencils and Gloss Accents from Ranger for some gloss on the cat’s eyes.