Cath Sheard Art

Tag: process

  • Working hard on some new ideas

    A few posts back, here, I showed you a test piece I had done – thinking about ways of presenting information and photos from our Italy trip ready for an exhibition in Wellington in May. In that piece I used a couple of MM foam stamps. I am happy enough with the result but would really like to be using something more personal, something uniquely my own. When I was studying with the Learning Connexion I did some lino cuts and a lot of monoprints. Here’s a couple of examples:

    I decided the answer was to take an image from our trip and cut a stencil or make a stamp and use that in the new artworks. The image needed to be something iconic enough that people here in New Zealand would still recognize it even after I had simplified it right down. I had a play with statues, the domes on top of churches, the bridge over the Tiber and the Colosseum. The Colosseum won easily, it is just *such* a recognizable structure. I scanned one of my photos into Photoshop and reduced the level of detail, then turned it to a negative so I could cut out the right parts. I transferred the image onto my lino and got cutting. My first attempt I really liked, but I had forgotten to flip the image and so in terms of my memories of the Colosseum, the building is running the wrong way. Okay. I flipped the image and started again. The end result is quite a different linocut to the first, because that’s the way I work, but I like it. It has energy and it’s mine, not someone else’s idea of the Colosseum.

    I wanted to do some more linocuts but had run out of lino, hadn’t had time to get some more, and it’s quite expensive. Today I was watching ‘Acrylic materials and techniques for expressive art with Merle Rosen’ from North Light DVDs. It’s a great dvd by the way, fun to watch and Merle has an exciting art practice. Anyway, part way through I had a total “Aha!” moment. Merle uses old styrofoam packaging to make stamps; it’s cheap (free) and easy to make marks in with scissors, metal tools, old pens etc. How cool is that?

    We tend to buy most of our meat from the local butcher. Grant’s old-fashioned, in the best sense of the word, and wraps the meat in brown paper. So no styrofoam meat packaging in our household, but we can always buy some muffins — just for my art practice you understand.  In the meantime, here are my first attempts at the Colosseum – these are the linocuts themselves, not the printed images. The images are not perfect and I don’t want them to be; they’ll be used in the background of mixed media works I’m creating over the next month or two.

    Linocuts of Colosseum

  • Following a few blogs…

    B Wilson, 2008

    This year I have been watching a few blogs regularly, but have cut down the amount of time spent online overall. I found I was reading and watching, but not doing. It seemed a bit pointless being inspired if I never found the time to do anything with it. The blogs I *have* been following have been a huge source of joy to me. I thank each one of these amazing artists for sharing their art, processes and artistic self so willingly with others. Here are my main blog fixes:

    Martha Marshall – I have been following Martha for years now. Martha is incredibly generous in sharing her art processes, and insights into her garden and kitchen. One of the things I find so inspiring about Martha is her sound work ethic and the joy she feels in the process of creation. I own 6 small works by Martha and hope to add more as I can afford to invest in more artworks.

    Tanya Dann – I met Tanya through the NZ Art Guild and appreciate the way in which she juggles her time and commitments to make time for art, and a role in the running of the Guild. We have two of Tanya’s striped works on our walls, and love them. One was created especially for me, and has the most amazing oranges and purples.

    Sophia Elise – again, I met Sophia through the NZ Art Guild, which she is manager of. One of the reasons I follow Sophia is the sheer generosity and kindness with which she treats other artists; she has a spirit worth knowing. Tony and I are the proud owners of a work by Sophia, which isn’t quite in our hands as yet…

    Michelle Ward – I have been following Michelle for a number of years, having first seen her work in a Somerset magazine. I follow her because she is very inspirational, freely sharing her techniques with her followers, and challenging people to push themselves artistically. I don’t own any artworks by Michelle, but I do own some of her rubber, and I try to participate in her online challenges most months at the GPP STreet Team site.

    Tina Mammoser – Again, Tina is someone whose blog I have been following for years. And yes, I own a small work by Tina and love it. I always enjoy reading about Tina’s process and admire her work ethic as a self-supporting artist. The other thing I like with Tina is that she seems to have this clear vision of what she creates and why, and that appeals to me.

    Rebecca Crowell – this is a blog I’ve been reading for about two years. Rebecca has a restrained palette and creates works with this amazing sense of depth and texture. I wish I could see one in real life. I love reading about her process, and the way in which she works through any obstacles in the process of creation. The final results have a real sense of age about them.

    Babs Wilson – yes, it’s a blog I have been reading for a long time too! Babs creates fabulous works but, more than that, she feels real joy in the process and shares that joy with exuberance. I love reading about her adventures in creating and her playful artistic spirit. I own a small piece by Babs which I treasure.

    When I look back at this short list a couple of points stand out for me; I love it when other artists talk about their process and I am consistent in what I like and why I follow. If I enjoy a blog and develop a relationship with the artist (comment by comment by comment) I am more likely to end up owning a piece of their work. What does this mean for me? In all likelihood, I should describe my process, because people like me care about the process of creation. And building relationships with people is what it’s all about in the end, whatever the setting – gallery, blog, weekend sales table, website…

  • Latest Art Guild Challenge

    The most recent NZ Art Guild Challenge is this: If you are not already – become familiar with different styles and eras of art that encompass text in a fine art context; e.g. Modernist era (pop art, futurist, dada, expressionist, minimalist) or a contemporary context (mail art, computer/digital art, text as image)
    You may like to consider some of the following artists: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichenstein, Colin Mcahon, Ralph Hotere, Barbara Kruger, Billy Apple, Rene Margrite, Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns

    Create an artwork that encompasses one of the following categories:
    – Text as image: e.g. Billy Apple, graffiti, concrete poetry
    – Object and text: Choose an object and incorporate some text relating to this object – you do not have to be too literal!
    – Text and image: You can use text in an abstract way or in conjunction with abstract images/patterns or with landscape.

    I enjoy Cy Twombly’s work, and have been using more of my own photos as a base for works recently, so this is what I came up with. Mixed media: photo, calligraphy pens, white out and digital.

    I Love Patea.

     

     

     

  • Planning for 2011

    Plan for 2011

    We’ve reached *that* time of year already. No, not Christmas shopping. Well, yeah okay, that too. No, it’s time to start planning my art calender for 2011. I like to know ahead of time what I am entering, so I can work to some vague sort of schedule. For all kinds of reasons the latter half of this year was slow for me art-wise, but I’m feeling on top of things again now and ready to put myself out there.

    I put the events I am participating in into a spreadsheet, with wall size, important dates etc and then keep it on the white-board above my desk in my home office. That way, I can see at a glance what I need to be putting effort into. If I enter a new event, I update the file and print it out again. I also mark off when I have completed the registration, sent off the contract and completed the artworks. Sure, this spreadsheet needs a lot more details yet, but it’s good to have made a start; and very good to know that I have 6 exciting events planned already.

  • Close encounter with signs and symbols

    As a teen I loved the movie ‘Close encounters of the Third Kind’. In it lineman Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss, becomes obsessed by the shape of a mountain, a place he has never been to. He sculpts it out of mashed potatoes, in shaving cream, builds a model out of wire – and finds that others share his obsession. He makes his way to a place protected by the military and witnesses a space ship make contact then land. What does that have to do with my art? Well…

    The wall I painted for our final exhibition at TLC.

    In my final year at The Learning Connexion I did quite a lot of work with symbols, specifically a (mainly downward) arch shape, a slanted oval and a sort of bent cross / power pole. They mean something to me, but I don’t know what. The arch belongs on its own, the oval and cross belong together. Why? Again, I don’t know, but like Roy I keep exploring them.

    I had stopped working with them for a time, but have been looking at my older work and realised I need to keep using them. I realise they are not unique, but they are becoming part of my visual language and being authentic to my true self means exploring them.  Words on their own are not unique, but what a writer or poet does with them often is – and so it is with art. I hope to develop my own language and refine it over time.

    Whilst at TLC I produced probably a hundred or more works that started with a photos of some shadows in our driveway that I then worked back onto in paint, replicating some of the lines, again in a curved cross pattern. I lost the photo and started replicating the shape on its own on black backgrounds. Eventually I painted a large wall black and, with no planning or end in mind, I painted huge cream curved crosses it.

    Today I have been working on a smaller scale, on postcard sized 300gm watercolour paper, using Golden fluid acrylics, oil pastels, water-soluble pencils and giant poster pens.  Tomorrow I think I’ll work a bit bigger and see what that does.