Cath Sheard Art

Blog

  • Trusting my intuition

    In November I visited the Hokitika Gorge and fell in love with the clear blue water so it quickly became the subject of a joint exhibition I have planned for this November. The works will show the iterative process I use to get to the final works.

    Recently I had the chance to visit the Gorge again. In packing art supplies I chose my basics – Phthalo turquoise, cobalt teal, gold, white Heavy Body Golden acrylics. I kept reaching for Golden Fluid Titan Pale Green – an odd pale green grey beige. Not the colour of the works I’ve been doing at all. I put it away, then got it out again; in the end I decided it was such a small bottle I’d take it with me.

    I started doing small backgrounds before I went back to the Gorge and kept using that colour. My brain was saying it was wrong – my hand, and my intuition – were determined though.

    I stayed with Alan Fowlie, a family friend, and before he took me to the Gorge he warned me the water might not be that amazing blue because of floods 3 weeks prior. Ok, sure. When we got to the gorge and I got my first fresh glimpse of the water I was stunned. Yes, you guessed right … the water was the exact colour I’d been creating.

    Incredible! That’s what happens when I am fully tuned into a subject and immerse myself in creating without overriding my intuition. It’s a lovely place to be, and involves letting go of control.

    Hokitika 1Hokitika 2hokitika 3hokitika 4hokitika may 2019

     

  • Recording life’s up and downs

    As I do every week I’ve done a page in my Dylusions Dyary – but actully I did two because I was away last weekend on an art trip so yesterday was catch-up time. This journal has pre-printed backgrounds so I add to it to make it mine, then photos and writing. I love this format for keeping a basic record of our very ordinary lives.

    dyary first week maydyary april may

  • A little bit of colour

    Most weeks I do a page or two in a small Dylusions diary; it’s about 8×5.5″ and lovely thick paper so there’s no need to gesso, the colours don’t bleed through and the pages don’t curl. I usually do a combination of collage and text; some of the tme I’m recording the lyrics of the music that colour my life, less often it’s inner thoughts (I tend to use other jounals for my inner world).

    bad habit rabbit 20190505

  • Colour me positive

    Every week I participate in the #ColourMePositive19 challenge on Facebook. The admin posts a quote and what you do with it is up to you. I work in a 6×6 journal for these and see them as quick play with colour and mark making – they’re a chance to just loosen up a bit. I was away last weekend so did two last night. I used Tim Holtz stencils, Distress paint, Distress ink for inking the edges of the paper, black and white pens.

    1617

  • Art Auction – Italy poppies

    I’m not generally a big fan of the “please donate art to our auction” fundraiser. No one asks the accountant, lawyer, or plumber to donate the equivalent. Artists are targeted because they have a physical product and “you can just make another one – right?”. Anyway, that aside…

    St John in Hawera are doing an art auction to raise funds towards a new station. Tony was an ambulance officer for about 16 years, and Mum was a very regular ambulance user, so it’s a charity close to my heart. Heck, I’ve used them a couple of times myself 😉

    My artist’s statement for the exhibition:

    In 2010 Tony and I travelled to Italy as I was one of 40 New Zealand artists who had works in the Legato exhibition in Cassino, Italy. I took 4 works over, celebrating 4 men including my father, Patea grocer Mansel Barker, otherwise known as Able Seaman Barker.

    The trip had a profound impact on me, and on my art. I have continued to paint the Italian landscape, and works which depict in some way the lives that were touched by WWII. Two of the works which went to Italy have been exhibited here in NZ as well, and newer Italian works have been exhibited in Wellington. In 2016, by invitation of the curator, I exhibited works in Italy for the Legato exhibition which coincided with 70th commemorations.

    This series of essentially black and white works is inspired by the poppies, which grow amongst the rubble throughout Italy, bringing colour to the landscape.

    Poppies at the railway station Italy 2012Poppies at Sorrento 2012