Cath Sheard Art

Tag: mixed media

  • Hand of the artist

    I’m going through a “strictly Dylusions” phase; my Dina Wakley journals haven’t been touched for a couple of weeks. Sometimes I work in both, using their products plus a few others such as Tim Holtz and Claire Stead. Other times, I feel compelled to just do one thing.

    I’ve been painting or inking, then stencilling dozens of pages in three journals. Once they’re dry I add borders with stencils, washi tape or collage. In the evenings I sit in the lounge doodling with black and white Posca pens while Alan watches tv or we listen to music.

    I outline all the collage, add stitch lines round some elements, doodle round the stencilling, and so on. I’m not fussy about it – if the line is wonky or goes over the collage it doesn’t matter.

    All of this means that, although I’m using products designed by someone else (a lot of the collage is straight from Dyan Reaveley’s own journals), the final pages are mine – they clearly show the hand of the artist. I love that!

    The pages below are sections from some of the ones I’m working on. I flip back and forth in the three journals, so I don’t have to wait for the pen work to dry.

  • Playing in my small journal

    This is a 6×6” kraft journal; the pages are thick and take all kinds of punishment, but they do soak up a lot of glue etc. To get the brightest colours I put a layer of clear gesso down first.

    The page with turquoise circles is a printed transparency from Dina Wakley Media that I’ve painted on the back then tipped in, so the page underneath peeks through.

  • 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.