Cath Sheard Art

Author: Catherine Barker-Sheard

  • Moving beyond realism

    I have been reading a book called “Beyond Realism” by artist Brian Ryder, who paints and teaches in the UK.

    The lighthouse landscape is based on a step by step project in the book so that I could try out his techniques. He puts on very thin layers of acrylic, waits till the paint is beginning to dry a bit, then uses a damp cloth to remove some of the colour and blend different areas. He uses a similar technique with oils. He also uses oil pastels amongst the acrylic layers, with it acting as a resist and also adding texture.

    It took me a while to get over the idea that it was “wasting paint” to put it on then wipe it off again – and I don’t even have Scottish ancestry.

    The moonlit landscape is my first attempt at using his techniques to interpret one of my photos; in this case a late evening one I took of the moon in early spring. I really enjoyed doing these two, but should have worn gloves as I managed to get smothered in paint!

  • In front of the camera…


    Well I did it – I got in front of the camera instead of behind it. Actually, I did the “holding the camera at arm’s length” thing! I took about 30 photos using the digital and then chose a couple I could cope with. Not too many chins, not too much of a frown…

    I printed a photo onto textured paper then painted a canvas and added layers of paper, stickers, metal etc. The cat is in the top left corner because there is usually at least one animal keeping me company while I work.

    The painted hand is pointing to my head because my hands get covered in paint while I work, and a lot of my work comes straight from my head. The words say “I love freedom” (freedom to paint, create, work hard, just be me) and “I love 2 create”.


    I also did a canvas using a copy of my first birthday photo. Dad took a photo of Mum giving me my first taste of lime fizzy drink – I pulled a face and they both laughed.

    I used the image of the baby wearing a crown because I didn’t want the overall effect to be too cutesy.

    I started to do some work using photos of Dad and I – but all it did was make me cry. It’s 15 years last week since Dad died and I guess the anniversary is more emotional than I had realised. In some ways it feels like yesterday, in other ways like forever. One of my mother’s friends said to me once that it is “selfish to mourn too long” but I’m happy to go on missing him for the rest of my life.

  • Experimenting…


    Well, I’m still working my way through a series of paintings on the sea. To move things along a bit, I decided to have a play with some different materials and techniques.

    I’ve had a play with glazes, dry brushing watercolours, scratching back into the paint, rubbing the paint on with a cloth…

    I’ve also been experimenting with how realistic an image needs to be before we “read” it as being the sea. I suspect the answer is “not very”!! Our minds are quite happy to go – oh yeah, that looks like the sea.

    I had hoped to paint from real life at the beach over the weekend, but it was so hot I couldn’t stand to leave the house. So I paid the bills, finished the paper we publish, chatted to Mum … and painted, painted, painted…

  • Water, water everywhere.

    I’m still obsessively painting my way through a series of work based on my memories of the sea and sunsets.

    Over the last week I’ve played with oil pastels, watercolour, alkyd oils, and acrylics. I’ve worked on pastel paper, white paper, black paper, cardboard…

    I particularly like this one, based on my recollection of the tide coming in around the rocks at Mana Bay, Patea.

    Today my main excitement was having to wash the kitten’s feet after she landed right in the middle of a very wet painting of the sea and then tried to run off with bright blue feet!! Luckily it was water based paint … but she certainly didn’t enjoy being dumped feet first in a basin of cold water!

  • Looking in the mirror…


    Really looking in the mirror can be a pretty scarey thing – so much of the time we unconsciously prepare ourselves before we look. We get the angle right, run our hand through our hair, perhaps tilt our head a particular way.

    But take all that away, and just look – at the colours, shadows, lines, shapes – and you start to see something quite different.

    A bit less familiar, and a whole lot less flattering.

    I’ve done a series of self portraits over the last week and I have to say this is the only one I’m prepared to put “out there” on publc view! Gives you an idea of what the others are like huh?