Cath Sheard Art

Tag: Dina Wakley journal

  • Revisiting old techniques

    Revisiting old techniques

    My art practice is a mix of art and craft; my art has been centred on collab with Penny Kirk for our most recent exhibition in Greymouth. When it comes to crafting, for months I’ve been working predominantly in my Dina Wakley Media journals with DWM paints and stencils etc. Love love love … but also feeling the need to change things up a bit.

    During the Covid-19 lockdowns in the UK artist Dyan Reaveley started doing online classes, as she couldn’t teach and travel as normal. Although converting GBP to NZD is pretty gruesome, I was fortunate to do quite a few classes and loved them.

    I decided to rewatch the videos, knowing there’d be techniques and ideas I’d forgotten about. Sure enough, I’m loving the videos and am having fun working in a Jumpstart journal I had squirreled away.

    I don’t normally complete a page at a time. The Jumpstart journal is blank pages on the left, and a colour copy of one of Dyan’s pages on the right. I start by using the babywipe method to colour a bunch of left hand pages, stencilling as I go. One that’s dry, I randomly add borders, cut shaped edges, add silhouettes and so on. Then I outline everything, doodle and add faux running stitch around elements. I sit in front of tv with Alan in the evenings, with a couple of sizes of black and white pen and just flick my way through adding details.

    None of these pages are finished, but they show work in progress…

  • Playing in my small journal

    This is a 6×6” kraft journal; the pages are thick and take all kinds of punishment, but they do soak up a lot of glue etc. To get the brightest colours I put a layer of clear gesso down first.

    The page with turquoise circles is a printed transparency from Dina Wakley Media that I’ve painted on the back then tipped in, so the page underneath peeks through.

  • 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.

  • A lot of Christmas, a little art

    Tony has been home for days in a row; yesterday I took him to see his friend Len who isn’t doing so well,. Tony had a rough night and was super tired today – we need to watch next weekend that we do even less.

    I haven’t had a lot of art time, but managed to squeeze some inky finger time in today. I’ve been making gelli print papers with my new Klimt inspired stencils by Elizabeth St Hilaire for Joggles.com. I’ve worked on deli paper and Hahn sumi-e rice paper. Once that was done I played in my 6×6 Dina Wakley art journals for a couple of hours. Some of the pages are cut and extended so the writing looks odd unless you see it in person.

    Deli & Hahn sumi-e gelli papers
    Pages in my 6×6 Dina Wakley journals

  • The joy of Kraft

    Kraft, not craft! I love the 6×6 Dina Wakley Media heavy Kraft journals. It’s more like cardstock than paper so paint doesn’t bleed through and the substrate never warps. I’m still playing with creating basic backgrounds, exploring colour and pattern. I’ll go back and journal on the pages eventually but for now I’m enjoying pushing paint around.

    Night photos, so the colours aren’t totally accurate.