Cath Sheard Art

Blog

  • Crusade 27: Shape Up

    6a00d8341c6e6653ef010536ac0171970b-700wi1Michelle’s challenge for Jan 2009 is to explore just one shape – stencil it, mask it, stamp it, gesso it…   It didn’t take me long to decide on the PEAR for my shape. It’s a shape I was using in some figure paintings about 3 years ago and the idea of rediscovering it really appealed.

    I spent today in my art room and made stencils, masks and a stamp. I played with spray paint, gesso, acrylic paint and Indian ink. I am so excited my what I’ve done that I want to make an art quilt featuring a pear, and do a big painting using the pear shape as well.

    I like the ones where the pears are not so obvious; I think this is perhaps my favorite.

    pear-6-0011

  • Loosening up

    I came home from work tonight incredibly, physically, tense. Not sure why – it was an okay day. I guessfigure some days I feel my job and its responsibilities more than others; or perhaps I started the day a bit tired anyway. Who knows …  Anyway, what I  needed was to relax once I had all my ‘chores’ out of the way. So I’ve aspects-of-the-land-3had a play with acrylics, ink, pastels, oil pastels – just loosening up mentally and physically. Now it’s time to set breakfast out for the morning and head off to bed with a glass of water and a book on fused quilting.

  • My word is …

    Along with setting some goals for the year, I’ve been doing some creative thinking using a journal mydear friend Steph gave me called “The sacred journey daily journal for your soul”. At the start of the year the books encourages doing lots of thinking about key words, goals, attitudes, affirmations. My word for 2009 is balance. My creative expression is “my art is mine and it is OK“. More on that in another post. But back to balance; why balance, and what does it mean for me?

    Balance:

    • between my needs and the needs of those around me
    • between work and home
    • between time doing art and time marketing art
    • between the process of making art and the goal of the piece of art
    • between time enjoying the net and time wasted on the net
    • between wanting things now and wanting to get our $ under control
    • between creating for joy and creating for profit

    And a more balanced attitude about:

    • food
    • exercise
    • putting tasks off for another day
    • taking on other people’s worries

    I can think of a lot of ways in which BALANCE is what is needed in my life in 2009.

    Many of the artists whose blogs I follow are also talking about their goals and key words for 2009: Martha Marshall, Tina Mammoser, Vivien Blackburn,and Jeanette Jobson all have interesting posts for you to enjoy. Happy reading! 

  • Creating a base layer

    salles-ed-2Although I can do all kinds of things I suspect I have only scratched the surface of what can be done with Photoshop.  Not that I am wanting to create digital art as an end in itself, more that I want to create things that I can use in my art that are solely my own work. That way there are no tricky copyright issues and that has to be a good thing, right?

    These pieces started with photos I took last night at a friend’s place and have two or three layers each. I’ll be transfering them onto canvas and them painting more layers over the top.

    honchii-in-paddock

    sallys-puss

  • A total lack of resolve – and a happy new year

    Happy New Year to one and all; may 2009 be kind to you and yours.

    I don’t make resolutions as the new year begins, but I do think about my goals for the coming year. Here is what I posted a while back. “Some of us in the NZ Art Guild have been looking back at our art goals for 2008, and thinking ahead to 2009:

    1. A body of paintings that hangs together around a theme or process (don’t know what yet).

    2. A small body of textile work to exhibit as a whole.

    3. Some charity work so I can give back.

    4. To market myself more systematically.”

    I’ve also been thinking about what I want in a personal sense, and have set myself a couple of goals to work on in 2009 – but they’re going in my journal and nowhere else!