Cath Sheard Art

Category: Uncategorized

  • Stencilled tissue paper

    Stencilled tissue paper

    I’ve been watching Melissa Reed on YouTube and love the way she colours tissue paper with acrylic inks. I’ve had time off work after getting significant liquid nitrogen done on my face, so yesterday grabbed some inks & stencils for play time.

    I used her basic technique but did it my way. I put the tissue paper on A3 laminating pouches then wet down using my sprayer bottle. I put stencils down and rolled with a brayer to adhere to the tissue. I added drops of acrylic inks, sprayed again & tipped a bit if needed, then left to dry.

    I love how vibrant the final tissue sheets are. The front is more muted, and the back is shiny due to being against the laminating pouch plastic. This is a technique I’ll be using again, that’s for sure.

  • Noticing, and muscle memory

    Noticing, and muscle memory

    I wrote here about one of the Sketchbook Revival 2026 lessons that grabbed my attention – visual prompts with Jane Davies. I quickly filled 3 sketchbooks with prompts… just two pieces of collage per page to respond to. I’ve been working through the first sketchbook over the last couple of weeks, and completed it today.

    I love this exercise because it builds muscle memory, training my hand to easily make the shapes that are uniquely mine as an artist. It stretches me as an artist, thinking how to respond to the start in a way that’s true to me. Looking through the completed sketchbook is a tour through my visual language, a reminder of the colors, shapes and lines that call to me in my work.

    The start
    The completed page

  • Yonder Paints – wow!

    I recently purchased the ‘Under the sea’ set of paints from Yonder Paints, a small artisanal business in Otepoti Dunedin, here in New Zealand. The set came in its own wee tin and the half pans have a wee magnet on the base to hold them in place. They make their own binder, which includes clove oil as a preservative, and they’re all hand-milled in small batches. My parcel included a hand written note, watercolour swatch cards and a couple of sample dots. Just lovely!

    That’s all great, but what about the actual paints? Put it this way, my second set arrived today … eight colours selected by me, again in their own tin. The paints wet well, the colours are vibrant, they blend beautifully – I’m in love!

    I haven’t got pieces photographed, because life has been happening, but I’ll do that over the weekend. In the meantime, shown below is what I received today, and the swatch cards I did for ‘Under the sea’. I use the Swatchdex swatch cards from Sarah Renae Clark, and find they’re great.

    This is the set I received today. I love the colours I’ve chosen.
    Swatch cards for Under the Sea
    Yes, I swatched one colour twice. Oops!

  • R&F Drawing Oils

    As a mixed media artist I use watercolour, acrylic, almost anything that’s water soluble, acrylic ink, pencils, pens and collage. I occasionally use pastels, but not often. I did a lot of pastel work a few years back but the skin on my fingers didn’t cope and, for the sort of work I do, they need a fixative.

    I’ve tried oil pastels in the past but don’t like the fact they don’t dry, and get everywhere. When I do use them it’s for small accents and I seal it with matte fluid medium. I don’t use oil paint because of the smell and chemicals.

    Recently I watched some YouTube artists reviewing the new R&F Drawing Oil Sticks and thought they sounded worth a shot. I bought the introductory set of six modern colours. Oh my god … love! I’ve since bought another ten or so colours. They’re easy to use, creamy and rich, and dry fairly quickly. I use them for highlights and love the vibrancy of them.

    The orange marks top left, and very pale blue centre right are drawing oil stick.
    The teal blue on the far right is drawing oil stick.
  • Practice means progress

    Practice means progress

    In March I did Marabeth Quin’s online course Mixed Media Collage & the Intuitive Landscape. In the course you make 16 small and 4 slightly larger abstract landscapes. I repeated the exercise almost straight away.

    Yesterday I started a set of 12 larger ones, and today started 12 smaller ones. When they’re complete they’ll go into my sketchbook, joining the earlier sets, along with notes about each one.

    Why create so many when they’re just going straight into my sketchbook? I loved the course, and want the learnings to become embedded in my art practice. But I want to create my work, using what I learnt, not create a simile of Marabath’s work.

    The best way to achieve that is through ongoing practice. I follow Niamh Baly, and she often says “practice makes progress” so that’s what I’m aiming for … progress.

    This isn’t complete yet, but I like where it’s headed.
    My desk covered in pieces I’m working on in series.