Cath Sheard Art

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  • Happiness is: new paints

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    I found Golden Fluid Acrylics at 30% off the other day at Tanjis. So I ordered a few – some are new colours to try, others are spares of long-time favourites. Happiness is: a wee box of paints, sitting on my desk tempting me. The first thing I do when I get new paint in a bottle is smear some of the colour on the lid. It’s easier to find what I want, and seeing the colours lifts my spirits.

    Oh, and for the record, here are the colours I bought: Turquoise (phthalo), Green Gold, Phthalo Green (yellow shade), Paynes Gray, Cobalt Teal, Cobalt Blue, Dioxazine Purple, Anthraquinone Blue, Nickel Azo Yellow, Iridescent Fine Gold, Napthol Red medium, Quinacridone Red, 2 of Quinacridone Nickel Azo Gold and 2 of Quinacridone Burnt Orange.

  • Does your art have a particular style?

    I recently purchased Alyson Stanfield’s book “I’d rather be in the studio” because I want to sharpen up the business side of my art. Why Alyson and why her book? Some of the artists I follow who seem to really be doing the business, as well as making the art, recommend Alsyon. For me, that personal recommendation is important. One of those artists is Tina Mammoser, The Cycling Artist; reading about the work she puts in to her business, while retaining her passion, is very inspiring.

    One of the things Alyson talks about is recognisable style. I stopped reading at that point and grabbed by visual diary for some note taking. Do I have a real style yet? Do I want to have one? If I do have one, do I even know what it is? If I don’t, should I be thinking about marketing yet or not? These are a hundred other questions…

    Today I spent some time looking at photos of my paintings and through my visual diaries – a sort of virtual tour of my art history. Looking for a style; my style. Did I find one? I am not sure yet. Maybe. There are certainly some pointers along the way. What would the words be that describe that style? Again, not sure, but the beginnings of some words are there. Words like mark making, expressive, abstract, landscape, orange, transparent.

    So then I thought, okay, of all your paintings is there one that you really feel represents what you want to achieve? The answer night me different tomorrow, but for today anyway the answer is this one. 10×10″ acrylic on canvas, long since sold via a local gallery to a Wellington-based New Zealand film director. And no, I don’t think it was Peter Jackson! (although it may have been for all I know) Why this one – the quality of the marks, the landscape is there but not explicit, the sense of light on the land.

    Where am I at then? Thinking, thinking, thinking – and keeping notes as I go. It’s a good process.

    remembered_landscape #4 lg

  • Latest Challenge: After Marilynn’s Hands

    The most recent challenge was to base a work, in some way, on the works of NZ artist Marilynn Webb. To be more specific, the rules say: Artwork must be an original interpretation based on the artistic style or subject, a straight reproduction, or your individual interpretation of the Master Artists’ work.

    Being me, I chose what is perhaps a less iconic work to be inspired by – contrary to the last, that’s me. The piece I have done is digital, based on original paintings of mine, plus a scan of my hand used as is and then manipulated in Photoshop. The finished piece is: Cath’s hands, after Marilynn’s.

    marilyn webb hands

    Maerowhenua River - The Place of Maeroero by Marilyn Webb
    Maerowhenua River – The Place of Maeroero by Marilyn Webb

  • We interrupt this art for …

    some quick family news and a plea. The family news has no names for privacy sake.

    Dad’s last surviving brother has bowel cancer – he’s 88, in no pain, and should have a bed in the hospice by Friday. His daughter has basal skin cancer that has to come off next week. His granddaughter is about to have her 1 year check up following removal of a nasty cancerous tumour in her leg last year. So we’re going through one of those rough patches. There has been a lot of cancer in my extended family, on both sides.

    Now for the plea. Please, please – get skin spots checked, have your breast screening done, get checked for prostate cancer. Don’t whimper and whine; like Nike says – just DO IT.

  • More mapping, of a sort.

    I am still deeply fascinated by the way in which Aboriginal artists map the land. I have been going through some of my stash of photos, and there’s quite a few of them, looking at the land and what has taken my eye in the past. Is it mountains, the sea, grass, buildings – what? Turns out the sea and Mt Egmont feature pretty prominently.

    Then I got to thinking about what I like in others people’s work, and in my art journals. And what I like – and don’t like – about the mapping sketches I have done so far. I like simplicity, but I also like layers. Into Photoshop for a while, and I came up with 3 images that I like. This week I will be taking them onto paper for a play round to see if the ideas translate into the material world. You just never know until you try it. For the record, the images are a combination of  Waverley beach and the lillies we have growing outside Mum’s room so she can enjoy them.

    beach flower 1

    beach flower 4

    beach flower 3