Cath Sheard Art

Category: Uncategorized

  • Inspiration journal

    Through the years of looking after Tony my self care slipped a lot. I lost fitness and put on weight. Some people’s bodies cope fine with extra weight, unfortunately mine isn’t one of them. It’s four and a half months since Tony died. It feels like yesterday and forever at the same time … but what I do know is it’s time to take back control. Tony will be cheering me on.

    I’ve bought a second hand elliptical for at home, rejoined the gym (a different one that offers better support) and gone back to a proper eating plan.

    I’ve just had a three day weekend and spent it sorting stuff, getting used to the elliptical, and making an art journal that’s all about taking control and being capable – it’s an encouragement journal for me.

  • Small concertina

    Small concertina

    Over the weekend I’ve been working on a small handmade concertina journal, with just 4 pages each side. It’s not finished yet, but my work is clearly less controlled thanks to the Marabeth Quin course I’ve been doing.

    I’ve used paint, ink, collage, NeoColour II and pencil. It’s dying overnight and I’ll keep working on it tomorrow after work.

  • Mark making & Cy Twombly

    I have always loved the work of Cy Twombly, with his expressive gestural mark making and scratchy lines. It’s not what I create, but I love seeing it. Pen Kirk and I were talking about that the other day, that for many artists what we like to view is not the same as what we create. Which is not to say we don’t love what we create! Anyway…

    I’ve been doing a course from Marabeth Quin called Mixed Media Collage and the Intuitive Landscape. I’ve been working on the 4 larger pieces from the second part of the course and I’m struggling to finish them so have put them aside.

    Last night I grabbed an art journal and was playing with layering and mark making … and boom! Suddenly there was a combination of my old mark making, which I’d lost at some point, and a new visual language that’s emerging thanks to the course. I can see hints of Cy Twombly and the Abstract Expressionists and that makes me happy.

  • Scaling up

    Working in a Gordon Harris mixed media sketchbook, I completed the evaluation exercise on the 12 small works. It was interesting to step back and consider favourite elements, what surprised me, what problems I experienced.

    Project 2 in the course is 4 large works, using the same techniques; layers of paint, collage and mark making. I’m using the same three paint colours, plus black and white, and the same range of collage materials.

    I’ve done the first few layers and am finding scaling up tricky. I keep using tiny bits of collage, which worked well on the original small paintings, but look fussy at this scale. I know the key is to just keep going, but I’m also going to make a deliberate effort to work bigger.

    Straight after I took the tape off and separated them.
    A close up of the initial layers.
    A few more layers in.
    Another one, at the same general stage.
  • A love of orange

    A love of orange

    Part of the course I’m doing involves looking, really looking, at what you’re creating. What do you love, what sparks joy? Find the things you love and do more of that.

    I’m onto the second part of the course where, instead of working on 12 small paintings, you work on 4 larger ones. I was sitting at my desk contemplating them and there it was … orange.

    I added some more orange to the works, then made a stack of tissue with varying marks ranging from light to dark shades of orange.

    Then my memory clicked in. When I did my Advanced Diploma of Art & Creativity almost 20 years ago we spent a term investigating colour as a material. I chose orange. I remember going to Gordon Harris Art Supplies and the French Art Shop and buying everything orange they had – ink, paint, crayon, pencil, pen, pastel.

    I commented to my tutor, Peter A, that I wasn’t sleeping well. He asked me what orange stood for. Warmth, autumn, sunsets. Yes, but what else? Fire, danger, warning. Peter laughed and said the reason I wasn’t sleeping was because my brain was in constant alert mode.

    Back to the present. I’m excited to have rediscovered my love of orange, and to see what it does for my landscapes.