Cath Sheard Art

Tag: mixed media

  • 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.

  • Sea Pinks

    Over the last week or two my small art journal, where I work out ideas, has been inundated with bright greens or greenish yellows. There’s a lot of hot pink, sometimes on the horizon line or cliff edge, or scattered in the landscape.

    Sandra was looking at my art journal, went off for a few minutes, and came back to show me Sea Pink (Thrift) on to coast of Wales – and they flower in Ireland too. And there’s the answer…much of what I paint is based on memories of the landscape. Mum’s birth mother Angela was Irish; somewhere in my DNA the memory exists of the Sea Pinks flowering in the landscape.

    That might sound far fetched, but think about this. People with Scottish ancestry often feel an affinity with the bagpipes even if they don’t know they have Scottish heritage. They’ll say it is like they know the music from the first time they hear it. Why? Because it’s wired into their ancestral memory, or however you want to describe it. Of course there are examples from all over the world, from all cultures.

    Have I been to Ireland and seen the Sea Pinks in flower? No. Does my soul, my shared ancestral memories, know them? I think so. I’d love to know if Angela liked them.

  • New stencils

    I ordered a few new stencils, designed by Elizabeth St Hilaire, from Joggles recently. I’ve got a few sets by Elizabeth and love them all. This time I got the Picasso mask and stencil set, and a few individual stencils. I had a play today, and think I’m going to get a lot of use from these.

  • Stronger contrasts

    In my last post I said I’d given away all my gelli prints. During the week I bought some Golden Open acrylics – they’re expensive here in New Zealand but great for gelli printing. I choose a few favourite colours; black, titan buff, red, titan pale green (celadon), dark violet and anthraquinone blue.

    I got out my Elizabeth St Hilaire stencils, plus a few old favs from StencilGirl, and got to work. I wanted some graphic prints, and stronger lines. I made about 50 prints, using a mix of Hahnemuhle Sumi e and Sketch rice paper.

  • 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.