Cath Sheard Art

Tag: Gelli Prints

  • 100TinyTreasures

    I’ve been an inconsistent blogger lately. Life seems a bit fragmented and busy. It’s not bad, just different, for all kinds of reasons.

    I’m still doing #100TinyTreasures and have been posting on Bluesky and Facebook, but not here, so it’s catch up time. An impact on any project that inspires consistent practice is, for me anyway, that it reinforces and solidifies the hand of the artist. What marks and shapes do I go back to time after time? What formats and focal areas speak most clearly to me?

    At the weekend I taught a gelli printing class with four artists. They each had an identical pack of papers, access to the same paints, stencils and tools. At the end of two and a half hours there were four completely different sets of gelli prints. The hand of the artist always shows…

  • What makes a landscape?

    Sometimes I veer off into florals, faces, or other distractions, but my deepest artistic love is the landscape. Memories of the landscape, fragments of the landscape: colours, shapes, shadows, glimpses…

    I’m interested in what makes something read as landscape. Is it the colours? Shapes? The way things are stacked up from land to sky? I’ve been exploring the idea in small 6×6 collages. As with any series, they’re getting looser and more abstract as the series progresses.

  • A proving ground

    My journals are a safe place to play but also somewhere for ideas to prove themselves or die… Sometimes an idea isn’t sustainable for practical reasons, perhaps because of the materials or energy required.

    Other times I start to play with an idea and, 2 or 3 iterations along, I’m getting bored with it. If an idea is going to become a series, even a small one, it’s needs to hold my attention for a sustained period of time.

    There’s been a couple of things recently I’ve tried and dropped for the above reasons. So I’ve gone back a bit to go forward – relooking at ideas that have captivated me in the past, and putting a fresh twist on them.

    I’m playing with ridge lines, mountains and the landscape generally. Because it’s a familiar subject I’m able to play around with my materials more. These early trial works incorporate gelli prints, acrylic paint, acrylic ink, water soluble pencils, Kuretake watercolours and Ranger Distress Foundry Wax.

  • Staying with the process

    I committed to filling at least one art journal with ideas before starting on ‘good’ paper or wooden panels.

    Today I made a huge pile of gelli prints using leaves and grasses then accidentally spilt about 1/3 of a bottle of green ink on the pile of prints. They’re mainly ok though, and some of the layers are magic.

    I’m still working on my small Venezia journal and have taped borders on every second page in the A4 size one.

    I seem to be flipping between abstract and semi realistic. I know why … and it’s holding me back. I need to stick more firmly to my own artistic voice.

  • Is this it? A new series.

    I posted recently about the quiet space between projects, where I play in my art journals, try out ideas, and just muddle about. I’d been listening to a YT post by Helen Wells who refers to the ebb and flow of creativity.

    Sometimes I think I’m ready for a new series so I make a start and it’s just not right. I wrote about a false start back in March. I’ve been looking at photos from the last couple of times Alan and I have been away in the hills, and painting some ideas in my small journals.

    Last night I was watching Australian artist Laura Horn on YT; I’ve admired her work for a long time. There was something about her work that made what had been on the periphery of my knowing come into focus. I’ve started making gelli prints with a specific purpose in mind, and have bought 6 wood panels to work on. They’re only 12×12” so I can have two or three on my desk at once. I’m excited to see what happens…