Cath Sheard Art

Tag: Patea

  • Still testing the water for works paintings

    This is another of the larger experiments as I feel my way towards a process I am happy with for the Freezing Works series of paintings. The process is much the same as with my previous post. I am still feeling good about this general direction, if not the actual result so far, which needs a lot more work yet.

  • Working on the works paintings

    Just so you know that I really have been working – even though I have not posted much of late. I am still not sure how I want to tackle the actual paintings so have been doing some more experiments, working bigger this time (about A3 size).

    I started with a layer of old sewing pattern collaged onto heavy watercolour paper with gel medium. This gave me some text and lines, much like the graffiti that is all over the works buildings. Next I put on really loose washes of Golden Fluid Acrylics, with no real scheme in mind. Over that I added more lines, this time using ink and a fine needle, courtesy of our vet clinic! Once all that had dried I started adding more colours, making some of the colour a bit more opaque, thinking about where the light and shadows are. These are still really only just beginning, but I think I may have found a direction I like…

  • Lots of little trials

    Yesterday I spent a few hours doing more than a dozen 16x10cm tests on Bockford paper using fluid acrylics, pencil, pen, oil pastels, pastels and Indian Ink. As usually happens, I started off quite tight, drawing what I could see. Then, as I got used to the image and the shapes, the works got looser. There are a couple that are heading in the direction I want – both have at least some of the hazy, layered quality I am looking for.

    These were all based on just one of the photos so there are more samples to come before I get to a stage where I am heady to bring out the canvases. Not that the paintings will be based on the test runs, but these wee works will certainly inform what I do, and help get my brain and hand familiar with the subject matter.

  • A whisper of grass

    I have been working towards a couple of exhibitions, including the annual NZ Art Guild exhibition “Out of the Blue”, and have finally finished everything I need to get done. The last works will be in Monday’s courier. Yahoo!

    This is the last work to be signed and made ready for hanging. It celebrates the wonderful warm colours of the land here in New Zealand as the first spring growth of grass pops through in the paddocks around us. It’s more about how I remember that time of year, and how it makes me feel, than about the actual look of the landscape. It is 10×10″ acrylic on gallery wrap canvas.

    A whisper of grass
    A whisper of grass

  • Some results are in

    So far, so good. The health authorities released initial test results today, which show no asbestos on the dust samples they collected around town the day after the fire. Results from the air samples they collected will not be available for another 36 hours or so.

    I spent my Saturday at work, handing out rubbish bags and gloves for the clean up, and repeating the advice I have been provided with. Human nature can be a funny thing and, in the last two days or so, I have seen some of the best and worst that stress brings out in people. Obviously because it is my work I can’t say much, but I will say this. It is often the people who have encountered the most risk, with the most to lose, who are also the most patient and understanding that some answers cannot be provided instantly. Enough said!

    On the home front, most of the smoke smell has gone thank goodness. I have a bit of a cough etc, kind of like hayfever, but that’s all. Just a normal reaction to exposure to yucky smoke.

    I have to work again tomorrow, Sunday, so hope things go well. Having dealt with 600 worried people in two days, I’m a bit tired out.