Cath Sheard Art

Tag: abstraction

  • It might be masts!

    Lately my art has taken a distinct change in direction. I worked my way very quickly through two art journals, using water soluble pencil, paint and collage. At one point I even said to my good friend, and fellow artist, PenKirk https://www.facebook.com/halfpennynz that I needed to “step away from the journal”! I didn’t of course, I just kept creating.

    About three quarters of the way through the first journal I realised the shape I was trying to create, over and over, was the island at Waverley Beach. It’s very different today; time, tide and climate change have destroyed most of it.

    Dad used to fish off the far side of the island. My friends and I would climb up the side and dive into the waves. Then, dripping wet, we’d clamber back up the papa rock and do it all over again. Looking back, I realise we could easily have been hurt because papa rock gets very slippery when it’s wet. We didn’t get hurt, but we did have a lot of fun.

    I’ve been doing a lot more mark making, using water soluble media. There’s a shape that keeps appearing and I’m not sure what it is yet. I seem to be using a lot of blue, deep green and white. I’m starting to wonder if the lines are masts. If it turns out they are masts, I’ve no idea where the imagery is coming from.

    At The Learning Connexion I did a lot of mark making, particularly in my 4th year, and still do in my art journals, but over recent years haven’t done as much in art pieces. I’m not sure what’s made the difference, perhaps some of the artists I’ve watched on YouTube including Jackie Schomburg https://www.youtube.com/@jackieschomburgart/about, but I’ve gone full circle and am doing a lot of mark making and drawing.

    Where’s all this leading? Goodness knows, but I’m enjoying the process and trust there will be an “aha! So that’s what I’ve been trying to get out of my head “ moment.

    This is one of the pieces I did before I got to the final shape of the island at Waverley Beach.
    This is an example of where I’ve started with water soluble pencil and a wandering line.
    Playing with mark making. The strong vertical line on the right is the start of the more mast-like lines.
    This is the very recent piece that has me thinking sea and mast … maybe! If it is, I don’t know where the mast comes from in my memory, but I guarantee it will be a memory.

  • Low tack tape is magic!

    I often use low tack tape around the edges of Fabriano Mixed Media paper then tape it into quarters. I work across the four quadrants as though it’s one sheet, starting with pencil marks, collage, and paint.

    If I work towards a finished image too quickly the work feels stiff and boring. That happened today so I grabbed some Dina Wakley acrylic gloss spray and put puddles onto the sheets of paper, moving it around with a brush or just tipping the sheet.

    I lost my grip on the bottle and poured quite a lot of Tangerine onto one sheet. Eek! I tipped it around a bit, then used a paper towel to mop some up. I thought it was probably a goner, and would end up being cut into pieces for collage.

    But there’s something magic about clean white edges; works that seem blah can suddenly look amazing. I pulled the tape of the 5 large sheets tonight and – go figure – the one with the Tangerine spill is stunning.

    In the photos, the one with the mauve tape still in place is a truer colour, the second is done on my scanner which doesn’t capture colour well.

  • 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!

  • Memories and dreams

    I have been dreaming a lot lately; usually a sign my mind is very busy, which would be a fair comment. I’ve started a new series of paintings, after going back through old material form my years at The Learning Connexion and doing some fresh research into the artists we studied and whose work spoke to me. I re-read some comments from my tutor, Peter Adsett, and thought about how they apply to my work now.

    Once I started painting I found I’d gone right back to being fascinated by the edges of the canvas, and that my memories of the old Patea Freezing Works buildings – which I have painted before – have reappeared. I think those shapes are strongly ingrained in my mind, and appear in my dreams and when I am painting without thinking too hard about it. The first one hardly referenced the buildings, but the shapes get stronger as my hand keeps working.

    Here are the three works I have done so far – one may need warming up a bit yet, but I am watching it for a day or two. The white is not as stark as it appears, I kept getting glare on fresh paint from the lower afternoon sun.

    DSC_0004 Fog 1 port 1

  • Feeling my way to a new direction

    From time to time I test out new directions, usually after being inspired by reading about and watching other people’s work. I love watching other artists on YouTube and letting that inspiration feed my work. I don’t want to copy their work and, even if I did, I am a hopeless copyist. What I do as an artist is what I do! Sometimes Tony will see a work and ask if I could do something similar. The answer’s always no. My hands and brain are wired to create in a certain way, so when I watch a lot of someone I can see their influence in my new work, but it always ends up looking like mine…

    Recently I have been reading about Flora Bowley, and my dear friend artist Martha Marshall put me onto Jane Davies. Here are to test pieces; I am sure you can see the influence of their style. I’ll be doing more pieces in my art journal until the new way of working becomes part of what I do and feels integrated into my art practice. I’d love to know what you think of these directions.

    Happy 1

    cruciform 1