Cath Sheard Art

Tag: gelli print

  • Pausing, resetting, something!

    Pausing, resetting, something!

    I’m not sure what to call it, but I’m taking 2026 off from selling my art, perhaps even from exhibiting. There’s a number of factors driving the decision, which has been forming for a while.

    I’ve been selling on Felt for a couple of years and love it as a platform, but it does best when you drive people there via social media and I’m on social media less and less.

    Sales this Christmas have been poor, which makes the time and effort involved not worth it. There’s other things I’d rather be doing with my time if the payback isn’t there.

    The rise of AI, image theft, and all that bad stuff, has seen me deactivate FaceBook, delete Instagram and TikTok, and so on. I’m still on Bluesky as it feels safer, for now anyway. Leaving those sites decreased my audience, but it’s at a time when TikTok is changing art marketing so it’s performative, which I hate.

    As a side note, there’s increasing online dissatisfaction with how TikTok is making adult colouring, reading and other relaxing hobbies into performative over-consumption.

    What’s my plan for 2026? It’s loose yet, but my main goal is to spend the year exploring new directions, rediscovering what I love most when saleability isn’t a factor, and create for the joy of it. I’ll do online courses, explore various media, fill endless journals with experiments. Who knows what directions I’ll discover along the way.

    I’ve been making gelli prints ready for a course I’m starting 5 January
    I needed to make around 60 A5 papers, and ended up with over 280!
  • Enduring themes

    Enduring themes

    My best friend’s granddaughter is arty and discovering oil pastels. I’ve been finding papers for her to try and, in my art room search, found a couple of old Sennelier sketchbooks. They didn’t suit how I work, so had been abandoned. The pages are perforated so I’ve removed my old work and Sandra’s handing the sketchbooks onto J.

    The pages I removed were mainly gelli plate prompts. It looks like I was using masks to print directly onto the pages. What’s interesting is, despite being perhaps 6 years old, there’s many of the same shapes and marks I use now.

    I’ve been cutting the pieces up and using them for collage in a small 5×5” journal. I like seeing that history reimagined.

  • Awagami international print show award!

    Months ago I entered a gelli print in the Awagami international mini print show. All works are on A5 on washi paper. In 2023 they received more than 1,600 entries, numbers grow year on year, but I’ve yet to find how many entries there were this year.

    The first 500 people to enter got a free sample pack of Awagami washi paper, and I found some of it quite challenging to work on. More than one otherwise nice work ended up partially sticking to the gelli plate and ripping!

    I made dozens of prints, then slowly narrowed it down to my favourite and posted it off. I forgot about it, because there’s been so much happening.

    This morning Pen messaged me with “nice” and a screenshot that I’ve received an Honourable Mention prize. Thanks Pen, I’d have been oblivious otherwise! I’m thrilled with the recognition, and to be part of an international group of work again.

  • #cjs20 day 19

    Today’s #cjs20 artist was Marsha Valk, whose colourful work I’ve seen (and liked) before. Her entire project wasn’t something I wanted to tackle in an evening so I used elements of her style to decorate a manilla folder. I use plain brown manilla folders for storing collage elements, painted papers, gelli prints etc so this was a useful project and a lot of messy fun.

     

  • Repurposing supplies

    I love scrapbooking. It might not be ‘trendy’ anymore, but I enjoy recording our lives, documenting what I know of old photos, and generally playing with paper, scissors & glue. I was a tutor for a national scrapbooking company so had access to all the newest supplies; one of my favourites was Basic Grey

    I was tidying up some supplies today and found my stash of old letters. Some of the self-adhesive ones aren’t any more. and I had quite a lot of Basic Grey heavy paper letters left. All the useful letters like a, e & s are long gone, and I’m left with a pile of g, x and q! 

    I was going to throw them out but suddenly realised I could repurpose them. Out with my 16×20 Gelli plate and some Gold Open acrylics. I put down one colour, then used the letters as masks and pulled a print – the yellow one shows what this looks like. I removed the letters, put down a fresh colour, more letters and overprinted; I did three layers on each.

    The page that looks a bit like old leather is where I pulled the leftover paint off the plate each time. I’m not sure what I will do with these yet, but like the look, and have tucked the paint covered letters away to use another day.