Cath Sheard Art

Tag: art journal

  • I’m back – and creating

    I haven’t blogged since March. It’s taken me all that time to figure out why WordPress wasn’t working properly. Once I figured it out, the solution was easy! Sigh…

    Pen and I are between exhibitions at the moment. I’ve got a few things I’m playing with but, so far, nothing has grabbed me enough to turn into a series or even hold my interest for long. I know to just keep playing – it’ll come. Helen Wells talked about this recently on YouTube Vrbo YouTube Occasions Wins & Losses NZ EN 16×9 15s

    I’m teaching a basic Dylusions art journal class. We’re meeting one night a week for 10 weeks. It’s lovely watching people have that “aha” moment when they realise how freeing an art journal can be.

    Alan and I have been out into the back blocks of Eltham twice recently, staying in a cabin well away from the world. Log fire, no noise or light pollution, surrounded by steeps bush-covered hills and deer, with the sound of a stream nearby. Bliss!

    I’ll share a of few photos of where I’ve been and what I’ve been creating. There’s no real rhyme or reason to the art at this stage, and that’s exactly the point.

  • Trying ArtStacks

    One of my YouTube favs is the wonderfully talented Claire Stead (Art_Journal Love). The other day she made a page using ArtStacks and I just had to check them out. They offer themed paper packs, so three sets somehow ended up in my cart. Got to love a quick digital download!

    I’ve used them in my 6×6 Dina Wakley Media Kraft journal, with DWM paints and stencils. I had printed them on 160gsm white paper, so they’re a bit sturdier, which I prefer. The colours are bright and the images are, mainly, easy to fussy cut. I’m thrilled with them and will no doubt be buying more.

  • Hand of the artist

    I’m going through a “strictly Dylusions” phase; my Dina Wakley journals haven’t been touched for a couple of weeks. Sometimes I work in both, using their products plus a few others such as Tim Holtz and Claire Stead. Other times, I feel compelled to just do one thing.

    I’ve been painting or inking, then stencilling dozens of pages in three journals. Once they’re dry I add borders with stencils, washi tape or collage. In the evenings I sit in the lounge doodling with black and white Posca pens while Alan watches tv or we listen to music.

    I outline all the collage, add stitch lines round some elements, doodle round the stencilling, and so on. I’m not fussy about it – if the line is wonky or goes over the collage it doesn’t matter.

    All of this means that, although I’m using products designed by someone else (a lot of the collage is straight from Dyan Reaveley’s own journals), the final pages are mine – they clearly show the hand of the artist. I love that!

    The pages below are sections from some of the ones I’m working on. I flip back and forth in the three journals, so I don’t have to wait for the pen work to dry.

  • Starting the year with some art

    I try to do something art-related or crafty every day … I call it moving my hands and downloading my head. New Year’s Day is no exception.

    We slept in, then I went through to Hawera and picked Tony up. He sat in the car while I did a couple of quick errands, then we had McDonalds at the park. He was tired as he’d stayed up to watch a movie last night, so I took him back to the rest home sooner than usual.

    I’ve spent the afternoon at my art desk, emerging occasionally to talk with Sandra or check on the ASB Tennis with Alan. I’m working in a Dina Wakley 6×6” kraft journal. When I finish this one I think I’ll swap back to Dylusions for a bit – I feel like changing it up a bit.

  • Sea Pinks

    Over the last week or two my small art journal, where I work out ideas, has been inundated with bright greens or greenish yellows. There’s a lot of hot pink, sometimes on the horizon line or cliff edge, or scattered in the landscape.

    Sandra was looking at my art journal, went off for a few minutes, and came back to show me Sea Pink (Thrift) on to coast of Wales – and they flower in Ireland too. And there’s the answer…much of what I paint is based on memories of the landscape. Mum’s birth mother Angela was Irish; somewhere in my DNA the memory exists of the Sea Pinks flowering in the landscape.

    That might sound far fetched, but think about this. People with Scottish ancestry often feel an affinity with the bagpipes even if they don’t know they have Scottish heritage. They’ll say it is like they know the music from the first time they hear it. Why? Because it’s wired into their ancestral memory, or however you want to describe it. Of course there are examples from all over the world, from all cultures.

    Have I been to Ireland and seen the Sea Pinks in flower? No. Does my soul, my shared ancestral memories, know them? I think so. I’d love to know if Angela liked them.