Cath Sheard Art

Tag: Dina Wakley

  • 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…

  • Get your gelli on

    I love the Gelli plate as an artist’s tool. Mine are all Gelli Arts brand, but I don’t think there’s a lot of difference between the brands other than the plate sizes. I use the gelli plate to make papers for collage and, when the stars align, I make finished artworks.

    I use Hahnemuhle Sumi e rice paper, Yasutomo rice sketch paper, deli paper, Dina Wakley Media collage paper, tissue and cheap copier paper. I use a brayer, mostly Liquitex or Golden paints, and some of the time I use stencils – I particularly love the Elizabeth St Hilaire collection from Joggles.com

    Recently I gave away my stash of gelli prints to fellow artists in a wonderful FB group run by talented New Zealand artist Froyle Davies. Why? It’s fun to send envelopes off to other artists, and it’s good to refresh your collage materials sometimes.

    Yesterday I grabbed a gelli plate, paints and stencils and got to work – 110 gelli prints later I have a new pile of prints with a different feel – I’m excited to start using them.

  • It’s an arty sign

    About 4 years ago I did a few sessions of counselling to get my head around some stuff. We also worked on me sleeping better, without huge success. We identified three things I wanted to achieve in the counselling; she said 3 is about the max you can do at any one time. One of the words we settled on was content; not content as in “no growth needed” but content to let the process work and accept life as it happens. There were a lot of very good reasons why that was needed.

    And, full circle, the same thing applies now. There’s a lot of change happening in my life, and I can’t control much of it. It’s important I feel content with life regardless.

    I’m inspired by Claire Stead‘s art and have just got her new release from Funky Fossil through Natalie May Scrapbooking in Australia. I got some clear text stamps and her collage paper. I was working in my 6×6 Dina Wakley kraft journal, one of my favs, this morning and flicked through the collage paper book and there it was — “I am content”. The universe wants me to know it will be ok!

  • 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.

  • #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.