Cath Sheard Art

Tag: mixed media

  • Chaos and calm

    Last weekend was busy by my standards. Alan and I were out both days because we’re looking at properties. Then we went out Friday night with a bunch of people, some I’d never met before – introverted me was working hard! This weekend I needed to relax & spend time in my art room.

    I spent Saturday making a variety of concertina journals from plain paper, ready for a trip we’ve got coming up later in the year. Then I started prepping some large A2 sheets of paper for more journals, so I’d have some with marks & colour on them already.

    This morning I started pulling some more large paper out of my stash and suddenly … there it was … creative block & a sense of overwhelm because of the chaos I’d created. I had to stop and tidy up, and that turned into a huge ‘sort, reorganise, rearrange’ mission.

    It never happens at work because I control my office environment tightly. Everything has a place, and the thing I’m working on is to the left of my keyboard, my pile of other work is well to my right so it’s out of my line of sight. At home, creating, it’s a different matter.

    Our family is all neurodivergent, in varying degrees and manifested in myriad ways – but it’s always there. The more I’ve learned about Mum’s birth mother, the clearer it’s become her genes are the gift that keeps on giving!

    My chaos and calm art room pendulum is a manifestation of my neurodivergence and that’s ok. The before and after photos shown are far from peak chaos!

    There’s work on the floor because both desks and the printer are covered in wet paper.
    Tidy, organised and fairly clean
  • More on the Collage Breakthrough course

    More on the Collage Breakthrough course

    I’m enjoying the Collage Breakthrough course with Cat Rains. I started off in a journal with light lines because I assumed we’d always be filing in the entire square. Never assume! So I started afresh, in one of my usual collage journals.

    The 4th lesson didn’t appeal to me today, although I’ll probably do it over the weekend, so I expanded on lesson 3 instead.

    These collages are certainly reinforcing my preferences for colour palette, types of mark making and how I like to put things together.

  • Putting mixed in mixed media

    Putting mixed in mixed media

    I’m a mixed media artist, but I’m not a very courageous one, unlike friend and fellow artist Pen Kirk. This year’s about play, and one of the things I want to do is incorporate more mediums into my mixed media.

    This morning I grabbed 20 pre-taped 6×6” watercolour papers and quickly got pencil & watercolour down. I let them dry then pulled out oil pastels, watercolour pencils, stencils, acrylic paint, Neocolour I & II and greaseproof paper.

    I’ve started working back into them, trying to use a variety of media and concentrating on play, rather than finished results. What mediums do I enjoy using together? What combinations make me smile…

    This is how the pieces look after the first layer of paint & pencil
    I added Stabilo All pencil, and stencilling using acrylic paint.
    I added detail with stencils and acrylic paint.
    Extra colour with water soluble crayon, Graphitint pencil, and pastel pencil.
    I loaded oil pastels onto greaseproof, flipped it over and drew lines with a palette knife. Extra colour added with Neocolor II and Derwent Inktense.
  • Keeping my hands busy

    Keeping my hands busy

    The world is, quite literally, burning. Australia is experiencing terrible fires. Parts of New Zealand are facing temperatures up to 12 degrees higher than average. Then there’s the general state of the world.

    It impacts on my art. Sometimes I look at what I’ve been creating and realise there’s blood, crosses, or the colours are suddenly more somber than usual. My shapes get simpler, the layouts less complex, and though my mind is looking for moments of quiet. These aren’t conscious decisions, but a reflection of what’s happening in my mind.

    When I notice the colours are getting sombre I deliberately brighten my palette a bit, but I let the crosses etc come out. Creating is good for my wellbeing, and keeping my hands busy is a great antidote to doom scrolling and doom posting.

  • Collage Breakthrough course

    Collage Breakthrough course

    At the start of every year I do an online art course, this year I’ve chosen Cat Rain’s Collage Breakthrough course. I’ve been doing collage for 20+ years; there’s always something to learn, and forced action increases gaining momentum.

    As with any course, I won’t talk much about the process, because that is their intellectual property. Instead I’ll share my discoveries.

    We started by making collage papers and I used the gelli plate. We need a mix of plain and patterned. I used my favourite stencils and, based on Cat’s videos, decided to make some patterned papers using a brush for mark making.

    We made grids of small collages, using two papers each, based on her guidelines. My first set was in a warm palette and I quickly realised I had light & mid tones, but no real darks. Also, the warm colours weren’t speaking to me. I made a new set of papers using blue and purple, mixed with black and white.

    I made my first grid of 6 collages using the new cool papers, and straight cut edges, which is what Cat had demonstrated. Then a second set of 6, with torn edges and more organic shapes.

    The next lesson was larger pieces, using 3 papers each, and I didn’t even bother using straight edges.

    What have I learned or remember so far?

    • I prefer torn edges, more organic shapes.
    • I prefer a cooler colour palette.
    • I’m more likely to reach for stencilled papers than ones with organic mark making.
    • I don’t always use enough tonal contrast in my work.