Cath Sheard Art

Blog

  • It’s not just the room that’s messy

    I am one of those artists that wears almost as much paint as the canvas. I have more ‘painting in’ clothes that I care to think about. I sometimes often have slightly unusual coloured fingernails – where the paint has ‘almost’ come off in the wash. Putting handcream on before I start painting would be a good idea, but I loathe the feel of it.

    I don’t often paint with a brush; most of the time I smear paint on with paper towels or baby wipes. Baby wipes are a favorite tool, but the paint does get all over me. I love them because I can move the paint around, strengthening colour here, fading it there. I use cheap, eco-friendly ones from the supermarket. Sometimes I keep the paint-stained ones as base for collage or using in my journals.

    Has anyone else tried painting with baby wipes?

  • This ‘might’ be done – and the mess

    Well, I did say I had art “stuff” everywhere – and I wasn’t joking. You can see what I mean about the bed being covered in paintings! And the winter light from the window is half blocked by my easel. Oh well…

    On the plus side, I think I am happy with this large moon painting. Need to live with it for a few days and see if I stay happy. It’s a terrible photo by the way, but the best I can manage today.

  • Semi-controlled chaos

    I have six paintings to finish by the end of the month for exhibition in Auckland. It is seriously freezing in my art room at this time of the year. So I am working inside the house, using my office as an art room. My office is really half of the spare bedroom, with a bookcase, desk, computer desk and a couple of printers – so it’s kinda cramped at the best of times.

    Currently there are two large, partly painted, canvas against the wall just inside the door. Four long, thin canvas lying on the bed, drying after from their first coat of tinted gesso. And no gesso on the duvet cover. And a little gesso on the duvet cover. My desk is smothered in paint brushes, tubes of paint, reference photos, paper towels and so on.

    It is a very good thing we are not expecting any visitors… 

  • Out of Intensive Care and home again…

    Tony is out of hospital and back home with us. What a relief. They did a basic treadmill test to make sure it was safe to release him, gave him some new medication and waved us goodbye.

    He’ll be off work for 4 to 6 weeks because, being an ambulance officer, the rules around driving are very strict. And besides, they don’t want to do a ‘proper’ stress test till then anyway, as they want his heart to heal a bit in the meantime.

    So, a huge wake-up call, but all safe and sound. All I can say is, thank goodness for the medical teams — our family has a lot to thank them for.

    Celebrating Mum's 84th
    Celebrating Mum's 84th

  • Mum home … but husband in Intensive Care – far out!

    Thursday night I went and got Mum out of hospital. We got home about 6.30pm and settled her back in. Her kidneys are on the mend and she’s feeling quite good. It had been a long week and I was really tired.

    I’d been asleep about 30 minutes when Tony woke me, saying he had a pain in his right arm and a sore throat. Kept an eye on him for a few minutes, then decided to ring 111 for an ambulance. Of course being an ambulance officer himself he’s a hopeless patient!

    We were in the Emergency Dept by about 11.30pm. One of the nurses look at me a bit quizzically and I said “just don’t say a word”. By 2am they were sure it was cardiac related and decided to transfer him to Base Hospital, which is another hour away. So, it’s a 3 hour round trip to visit him…

    Turns out he had an actual heart attack, and the pain lasted through much of Friday. He’s a lot better today – off the drip, off the morphine, and feeling much brighter. He’ll be in Intensive Care all weekend hooked up to a monitor then on Monday they’ll do a treadmill stress test to see if he needs to be assessed for a stent or bypass or whatever.

    Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire…