Cath Sheard Art

Tag: Legato

  • Starting on 56 6×6″ canvases

    As part of my deal with shareholders in the trip we made to Italy for the LEGATO exhibition, I now have to make 56 6×6″ paintings. They all have their newsletter with its full colour photos, so that’s a good job done. I want the works to all be individual but at the same time do not want to create unnecessary work for myself. My intention is to work on the paintings in batches, probably six at a time. I have ideas for the first 3 or 4 batches and am mulling over the rest, making notes as I go. The first batch, which I am going to start on later today, involve digital art printed out on rice paper, glued down with gel medium and then worked over with more collage and probably some oil pastels.

    Below is the digital work I have done so far. It’s made up of four photos initially. Then I have taken a photo of some poppies in the field and removed all the background so I have a field of floating poppies. I have layered this over the original digital collage for a sort of dreamy surreal effect. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when I start adding a few more collaged poppies over the top, then working in with the oil pastels.

  • Newspaper article

    The Wanganui Chronicle ran a quarter page article today on the pieces I have created for the LEGATO exhibition in Italy. Wonderful coverage. They even used my artwork for the full colour banner on the top of the front page!

  • Legato postcards

    With only a month left till we head to Italy for the LEGATO exhibition at Cassino, I have completed 60 postcards. These will be posted from Casino to all the wonderful people who have bought $35 shares in my trip. Once we get back they’ll also get a colour newsletter about the trip, and by Christmas 2010 will receive a 6×6″ painting as well. I want people who have supported me to feel like they’ve got real value for money.

  • 60 postcards to make for Legato shareholders

    As part of my ‘art share’ offer to raise money for our trip to Italy, for the Legato exhibition, I have to make 60 postcards. These will be mailed back to shareholders once we reach Cassino. I am working on heavy weight watercolour postcards; they come in a little silver tin and the lovely to work with. I have made a digital montage of images of Italy and the Cassino area, the artworks I have created for the four men I am honoring, photos of the men, and words about the trip like Italy, Legato, WWII, peace and the men’s names. I’ve printed multiple copies of this A4 montage.

    I decided to work in two batches of 30 postcards each. I put a very light wash of Nickel Azo Yellow on the postcards then quickly blotted with a paper towel to get some texture. Once that was dry I added splashes of Cadmium red medium and again left them to dry. Once they were really dry I added runs of the same red, quite dilute, as I had done on the original artworks; it brings a sense of blood without being too obvious. Once they had dried, I tore the digital collage sheets into strips and have adhered a strip on each one that is about a 1/3 of the width of the postcard.

    What comes next? Tomorrow I’m going to hand-cut a stencil of the main lines of two different poppies, using acetate and a tiny soldering iron.  In the meantime, here’s the digital collage I made.

  • LEGATO works – process photos

    Last week and over the weekend I was working on the four mixed media paintings that I am taking to Italy for the LEGATO exhibition in May. I thought it was time I shared some snapshots of the process – I have not taken photos of the finished works as yet; partly because I am not 100% certain they are finished. I am living with them for a week or so while I eye them up! Here’s how they got to the “I think these are done’ stage…

    Writing the story on the canvas
    First acrylic wash over the writing
    Adding copies of photos and old war documents
    Building up the washes and splashes
    Adding the reminder that war is a bloody business
    Painting in a peace poppy on each, helping to obscure the text