Cath Sheard Art

Blog

  • Stepping back, leaping forward

    I’ve been stepping back into old methods and ways of mark making … no pressure, no sales, nothing but play. I’ve been surprised my work seems increasingly realistic, which isn’t my preferred style. I’ve been prepared to go with it, on the premise it would lead somewhere.

    I keep my workspace relatively clear, except when actually working on something. As a mixed media artist, I feel I’m not doing enough mixing and layering. I decided to leave a bunch of supplies on my desk in the hope I’d reach for different media. My desk’s currently got paint, inks, fluro paint pens, NeoColour I and II, Stabilo Woodies and collage papers. I’ve also got a couple of new journals I’m working in.

    I started a couple of pages last night and I was playing with materials while on a video call to my sister, then a friend. And there it was … bright, semi-abstract, layered. It feels like I’ve gone back to my artistic roots and also leapt forward. I couldn’t be happier!

  • Enjoying the landscape

    Enjoying the landscape

    I’m looking at the landscape with no expectations about outcome: just thinking about shape, colour, light, combinations of materials. This year is about play, not outcomes. This relaxed attitude seems to be pushing me further in both directions – abstraction and realism.

    This one’s been out aside while I contemplate next steps

  • Chaos and calm

    Last weekend was busy by my standards. Alan and I were out both days because we’re looking at properties. Then we went out Friday night with a bunch of people, some I’d never met before – introverted me was working hard! This weekend I needed to relax & spend time in my art room.

    I spent Saturday making a variety of concertina journals from plain paper, ready for a trip we’ve got coming up later in the year. Then I started prepping some large A2 sheets of paper for more journals, so I’d have some with marks & colour on them already.

    This morning I started pulling some more large paper out of my stash and suddenly … there it was … creative block & a sense of overwhelm because of the chaos I’d created. I had to stop and tidy up, and that turned into a huge ‘sort, reorganise, rearrange’ mission.

    It never happens at work because I control my office environment tightly. Everything has a place, and the thing I’m working on is to the left of my keyboard, my pile of other work is well to my right so it’s out of my line of sight. At home, creating, it’s a different matter.

    Our family is all neurodivergent, in varying degrees and manifested in myriad ways – but it’s always there. The more I’ve learned about Mum’s birth mother, the clearer it’s become her genes are the gift that keeps on giving!

    My chaos and calm art room pendulum is a manifestation of my neurodivergence and that’s ok. The before and after photos shown are far from peak chaos!

    There’s work on the floor because both desks and the printer are covered in wet paper.
    Tidy, organised and fairly clean
  • More on the Collage Breakthrough course

    More on the Collage Breakthrough course

    I’m enjoying the Collage Breakthrough course with Cat Rains. I started off in a journal with light lines because I assumed we’d always be filing in the entire square. Never assume! So I started afresh, in one of my usual collage journals.

    The 4th lesson didn’t appeal to me today, although I’ll probably do it over the weekend, so I expanded on lesson 3 instead.

    These collages are certainly reinforcing my preferences for colour palette, types of mark making and how I like to put things together.

  • Putting mixed in mixed media

    Putting mixed in mixed media

    I’m a mixed media artist, but I’m not a very courageous one, unlike friend and fellow artist Pen Kirk. This year’s about play, and one of the things I want to do is incorporate more mediums into my mixed media.

    This morning I grabbed 20 pre-taped 6×6” watercolour papers and quickly got pencil & watercolour down. I let them dry then pulled out oil pastels, watercolour pencils, stencils, acrylic paint, Neocolour I & II and greaseproof paper.

    I’ve started working back into them, trying to use a variety of media and concentrating on play, rather than finished results. What mediums do I enjoy using together? What combinations make me smile…

    This is how the pieces look after the first layer of paint & pencil
    I added Stabilo All pencil, and stencilling using acrylic paint.
    I added detail with stencils and acrylic paint.
    Extra colour with water soluble crayon, Graphitint pencil, and pastel pencil.
    I loaded oil pastels onto greaseproof, flipped it over and drew lines with a palette knife. Extra colour added with Neocolor II and Derwent Inktense.