Cath Sheard Art

Tag: art journaling

  • What we reveal

    Next weekend Penny and I are holding an artist talk for the closing of our joint art exhibition at Left Bank Art Gallery in Greymouth. I’m flying down on Thursday to stay with Alan for a few days and do arty stuff with Penny.

    Last night Penny and I were talking about our prep for the event. She will have some bullet notes, and go from there. I’ll have every single word written out and won’t deviate from it much. It’s the same with our art, we have two very different processes and styles.

    Where we don’t differ is we’re not very good at talking about our emotions, and this collaboration has been a huge emotional journey for both of us. I need to talk about that as part of the closing of the exhibition.

    Does what I’ve written tell the whole truth? No, not really.

    I met with someone this morning who had weight loss surgery a couple of years after me. She’s doing well. We talked about what we eat, when we eat, why we eat. Sitting here though, thinking back to our coffee meeting, I know I edited my truths. Sorry SK; it’s that old weight monster – shame.

    Sandra has been grandkid and puppy sitting today, and the puppy fell asleep n me. I asked her to take a photo for me. I look at that photo and see the puppy, but also the weight I’ve put on in the last year and there it is – shame. I’m working on it – both the food choices and the emotions. In the meantime, I’ll keep editing what I reveal, protecting myself.

  • Using it up

    All crafters know this story … buy something you love – paper, paint, ephemera – and it’s so good you don’t use it, you just stash it away. I bought a very expensive tube of paint once and when I finally decided to use it the paint had gone hard in the tube.

    Yesterday the weather was miserable and, in some ways, so was I. I decided to haul out the drawer I keep my general supplies in. Things like Stamperia rice paper, Tim Holtz paper dolls, and so on and just play.

    I did a bunch of pages using up things I love, while I still love them. Now I have space for more supplies when I see something I like. If you’ve got things tucked away that are “too good to use” why not treat yourself by pulling them out of your stash and using them? You’re worth it.
    Here are some of yesterday’s pages.

  • Circling back

    Circling back

    I’ve been learning to draw faces. Today is day 50 of this #100dayproject. I can draw a recognisable face with no real effort now. What I can’t reliably do is convey a specific emotion, but hopefully in the next 50 days that will come.

    I’m also doing #100daysofcollage with Froyle Art and loving it. We’re doing a different colour each week. These are in a small Dylusions journal, so not overly time consuming. I’m using up some of my stash of gelli print and hand printed papers.

    But I’m also circling back to my earliest art journal love, Tim Holtz and Distress. Sometimes I put it away for a bit, but I always come back. I just got some new paper dolls, transparent wings, and some other bits and pieces. Heaven! Thanks to Fiona at Create for having great stock.

    Using my new Tim Holtz supplies, and some Finnabair rub ons.
    The first face I tried, and some of my most recent. Centre top is today one.
    A few recent collages from the series.

  • Journal homage to Dr Wayne Dyer

    I’ve been a follower of Dr Wayne W Dyer for decades. I have his books, CDs etc. and refer to them semi regularly. A while ago I bought a withdrawn library book, The essential Wayne Dyer collection. I’ve taken out all the key messages, which I’ll handwrite into my journal; the act of writing helps build neural links. I’m gelli printing on some of the pages and I’ll use them in my art journals.

    I’ve been making a small art journal of collages and adding words or phrases I’ve cut out of the book. Seeing them helps me remember his key messages, and creating art with them further develops the long term memories because, for me, art involves emotion.

    I recently started following Froyle and she’s doing a #100daysofcollage project. I’m already doing a face a day for 100 days but her enthusiasm has won me over and I’m going to do my Wayne Dyer journal as another 100 day project. Here’s some of my first pages.

  • #100dayproject

    I’ve done a 100 day project before; it’s a good way of doing a deep dive into a topic. This year I decided to improve my drawing skills with the aim of being able to draw faces in my art journals. I signed up for Dina Wakley’s Facing the facts class at https://dinawakley.com/store/.

    I drew a face at the beginning of the journal so I can look back at where I started. When I did an Advanced Diploma of Creativity (Honours) over 4 years by distance with The Learning Connection we did some drawing, and I improved, but didn’t keep it up. It’s definitely a skill that needs constant use, for me anyway.

    I’m on day 10 and already seeing an improvement and feel able to start making the faces a bit more my own. It’ll be interested to see what I’m achieving at day 100.