Cath Sheard Art

Tag: process

  • Working on a project

    I’ve been working on a boxed book project that involves photos, collage, paint etc. I made a start at the weekend, sitting at my home-office desk instead of in my art room – due to the almost sub-zero temperatures we’ve been experiencing my outside art room is off limits. Here’s a peek at the underlayers on the box the book will be housed in. evidence 009

  • Thinking about my art practice

    Today I have been cleaning, tidying and de-cluttering. It never ceases to amaze we just how much “stuff” can come into our house that we really don’t need. Gifts, things through the mail, junk from work I mean to do something arty with…in the end, it’s all just so much clutter! I find too much clutter quite tiring so today 3 boxes of books ‘n things have gone to charity,and a few pieces are on sale on TradeMe (NZ’s Ebay).

    While I was cleaning I was thinking about my art practice and questioning where my art has been going since I finished my Diploma. Party, I was starting to feel like I’m just puddling round, not achieving a lot. But on reflection I know that’s not true. In some ways I am not as driven as I was, but that’s only because I am being kinder to myself, and taking more account of the other pulls on my time.

    I still have a rigorous art practice and definite goals. And the evidence is all around me; from my stacks of journals and visual diaries, art books, paintings in various stages, art supplies stacked up on a case beside my desk…check out these photos as evidence:

  • New Mt Egmont painting – looking at the values

    This week I have four days off work, and I intend spending the whole time painting. I have to get some big works done for an exhibition in Auckland. BUT this coming Friday is Waitangi Day. It’s the day New Zealand celebrates the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, the document that more than 150 years ago was signed between Maori and the Crown detailing how this land would be in the future. It gives Maori equal rights in law – amazing for a colony in the 1800s – and probably one of the reasons New Zealand has, in the main anyway, thrived as a bi-cultural society.

    This Friday my town, Patea, celebrates with an event called Paepae in the Park. It’s a massive day with music, food stalls, speeches – all celebrating our diverse community (Patea has a high percentage of Maori, as has this area generally). Businesses are closed but to support the day I open the library, which is next to the park where the event is held. A top NZ band, Katchafire, is playing this year, and we expect about 5,000 people to attend. The library has disabled access toilets, and offers people time out in the shade and quiet. I also think it is good for the library, and me as library manager, to be seen to be involved in events within the community. Last year the event did not go ahead because of a massive industrial fire in town on the day. The year before I had more than 700 people through the doors on the day – amazing, because at that stage our usual weekly footprint count was only 500.egmont-and-cowsWhat does that have to do with painting? Well — I am going to do some small, 4×4 or 6×6, acrylic paintings of Mt Egmont to display – and hopefully sell – in the library. The Mountain (Maunga) is very important to local Maori. When they have been away form the area, seeing Mt Egmont signals that they are ‘home’. So I have cropped a favorite photo of the mountain to square-ish, and turned it to gray-scale to make  the values more obvious. And tomorrow  head into my art room to get messy. Love it.

  • Work in progress – rose

    It’s not often I do anything that involves lots of layers of glazing, but I thought it was time to do something different, something a little slower. Have you read about slow food, slow cloth, slow whatever? It’s all about taking your time, savouring the process, using your process like meditation. That’s what this painting is like for me; a slow, meditative process where I put some glazed colour on, look and think, put some more on, look and think…

    I decided to paint a close-up of a rose because it gives me quite distinct areas of tone and colour, and because the definite form means I hopefully won’t drift off into abstract land on this one. I found a free photo of a rose on the net and printed it out.  I covered the back in pastel, taped it to my canvas and then used a sharp pencil to transfer the main lines onto my canvas.

    I have done quite a few layers so far and, at this stage, it looks very crude and altogether too ‘obvious’ for my liking. But as I go through the layers I will soften both the edges and the colors. Hopefully I’ll arrive at something I can enjoy. We’ll see!

    001

  • Looking forward to 2009

    Some of us in the NZ Art Guild have been looking back at our art goals for 2008, and thinking ahead to 2009. I did reasonably well on my ’08 goals; some are ongoing and well enough entrenched as to be habits now. Others turned out to be “not such good ideas” and have been left behind. So what have I decided on as my goals for 2009. The short version is:

    1. A body of paintings that hangs together around a theme or process (don’t know what yet).

    2. A small body of textile work to exhibit as a whole.

    3. Some charity work so I can give back.

    4. To market myself more systematically.

    Here’s the expanded version – with the where’s and whys:

    1. A body of paintings that hangs together around a theme or process (don’t know what yet). This is the big one for the year. As it says, I don’t know yet what it is that will bring cohesion, but I do know that cohesion is what I need form my work this year. A body of work that I can hang in one place, and one time, and have it say “one artist did this and it works”. How hard can it be!

    2. A small body of textile work to exhibit as a whole. I am planning a series of experimental work with TLC tutor and artist Trisha Findlay. We’ve yet to work out the details but essentially we’re talking about a monthly challenge with a view to exhibiting the work at the end of the process. And speaking of process, the challenge is likely to be around process, not size, or subject etc.

    3. Some charity work so I can give back. This is about donating the occasional work to charity auctions etc. Not too much or too often, but enough to know I am giving back. Why not too much or too often? Think about this – when do you think was the last time your accountant or mechanic was asked to donate his time and materials to a charity auction? Yet artists are not big earners to start with…

    4. To market myself more systematically. I do some marketing but it is a bit haphazard. I need to think it through more, be more systematic; less scatter-gun, more bulls eye!

    Have you been thinking about what you did in 2008? Do you have any goals in mind for 2009? I’d love to hear your thoughts on either, or both.