Cath Sheard Art

Tag: abstract landscapes

  • Prepping too soon

    On Saturday I posted on bsky that “I’ve just taped the edges of about a dozen pieces of paper. I love a nice, clean white edge on the finished works. The fact I’ve prepped so many is a good sign. My subconscious must think I’m ready to start a new series”.

    I had an idea of what I wanted to create, starting with fluro pink or orange paint scraped onto the paper so it was textural. I painted 8 small pieces of paper, mainly in the fluro pink, and let it dry. So far, so good.

    Then … nothing. Hmm, looked at the inspiration photos on the wall, and the couple of trial works I’d done. Ok, the direction’s pretty clear. Put some paint out and started working across four of the prepped surfaces.

    Nothing worked as expected. Not just in a “well, these need a lot of refining” way, or even a “well, some collage and mark making will help” way either. More of a “can I light a bonfire” way?” 😉

    It means I prepped the surfaces too soon. I need to spend more time in my art journals, more time playing with colours and shapes, and just let it simmer. The paper I prepped won’t go to waste, but it’ll probably be a few weeks at least before they appear on my art desk again.

  • A shifting vision

    I’m working on a new series; the last couple of posts have talked about trying out some different ideas and ways of expressing my ideas. This isn’t a new direction, instead it’s a slight shift in how I put on paper – in paint – the things I don’t have words for. Sometimes that’s emotions, other times it’s my memories of the landscape.

    I’ve been working in a kraft journal and on a variety of mixed media papers. My favourite pad of PaintOn mixed media paper has white, cream, black, and a blue grey. I’m using quite a bit of fluro pink from the Golden heavy body range and it’s hard to scan the colour accurately. These works include collage, paint, ink and pencil, so are much more “mixed” than my usual mixed media. I’m ordering more precut mat show kits from the US this week and it’ll be interesting to see how they look with a clean white border.

  • Working in series – class prep

    I’m teaching a class in Greymouth in early December about working in series, for abstracts and/or landscape abstracts. The class packs have been put together, and the classnotes printed out. The class is on Thursday 5 December, 7-9.30pm at CoRe. Book by emailing leftbankwestcoast@gmail.com or phoning 03 768 0038.

    Here’s a sneak peek of the process we’ll be following!

  • Getting organised for classes

    I love teaching art, but it requires a lot of preparation if you want people to get the most out of it. Over the last week or so I’ve been working on samples for the advanced gelli print class I’m teaching in Greymouth in early December. You can book though Left Bank Art Gallery or message me. Each person who attends gets a class kit with instructions, sample photos, mixed media paper and so on – that’s why booking is essential.

    Here’s a sneak preview of the process, and how the prints progress from initial layers to a (possibly) finished print or two.

  • Adding to the layers

    Tonight I’ve added more layers to last night’s gelli prints. I added some strong darks, lighter green and pinks, then finally a brightish yellow and medium creamy brown. Some of the time I used hand cut stencils, focussing on the shapes that appear throughout my artwork. That way, the final prints will show my hand in them.

    These will get final marks in the next few nights. I’ll spend time looking at each one, thinking about what I like, what’s not quite right, and so on. Not all of them will end up as completed works, and that’s ok.

    The photos are quite bright night time ones taking with my phone, so a bit of flash glare etc.

    If you’re coming to the class in Greymouth, please book at Left Bank Art Gallery – I need to know numbers so I can make up the class packs … thank you!