Week 9 with Ayozie Pollendine was about used aged papers and honouring the past. I focused on Mum’s birth mother Angela – I’m fortunate to have some old photos of Angela with her family. I added a map of Ireland, and County Clare, where Angela was from.
Mum found her half brother John when she was in her 60s and it was an absolute blessing. I’ve written a bit about it in t(e background. I know it doesn’t always turn out so well for people. We were incredibly lucky.
Buff and Sage DWM paint with blue W&N watercolour stick, teal Stabilo Woody, indigo Derwent graphite. I seem to be into muted colours, probably a reflection of how the world feels.
Alan and I went bush for the weekend. I love being out in nature – trees, hills, quiet, no power or cell cover. No other people. Listening to Morepork at night, watching Tui during the day. Bliss!
I knew Alan would be doing his thing during the day. We both accept I have limited physical capacity some days. I had prepped two small art journals, and took water soluble crayons and pencils, and a few other bits and pieces. The journals are a new brand for me, and turns out the paper isn’t as durable as I like despite being a bit dearer than some of my fav journals. I bought them to try because they were 30% off. I also wish I’d taken actual watercolours, but both those problems are incidental.
What’s fascinating, as an artist, is while I absolutely love being in the bush it doesn’t inspire me to paint in the way I expect it to. It might just be that I haven’t done enough to loosen up and create the sort of work I like, but I’m also not sure I want to. And yet when I go down South I find the water, and the colours of the Hokitika Gorge, inspire me to create over and over and over.
What we love, and what inspires us to create, are not necessarily the same thing. Why? I have no idea really, but I’m mulling it over. In the meantime, here’s some samples of the pages I did do…
This week’s Wanderlust25 lesson was taught by Shawn Petite, who I’ve followed for years. The project involved journaling, prepping the page with collage papers and ephemera that have meaning to you, and using washes of colour that relate in some way to what you wrote. The last step was a self portrait. I won’t go into all the details with it being a paid course.
We started by doing a practice colour wheel. I chose to go slightly off the primary colours, and used DWM Lemon, Lapis and Ruby, with DWM Umber and White, and Liquitex Parchment. It’s not a combination I’d tried on a colour wheel before and I like it.
People who know me well will understand why “voice” is the word I ended up with to summarise my journaling…
Cath Sheard Art 