Cath Sheard Art

Tag: sea

  • Monoprinting on fabric

    My friend Trisha and I have a private challenge going on, where we each create a textile piece once a month and share the process, and results, with each other. I am running a bit behind, however…

    I have been seeing a lot of artists doing monoprints and linocut lately, and that got me thinking. Today was THE day, Taranaki Anniversary – an extra day off work to do art with. Cool!

    I simplified the photo using ‘cut out’ in Photoshop, reversed it and printed it out. I drew the basic lines onto acetate then painted it with acrylics. (they dried a bit too quick on the heat really). I did a quick test run on some scrap paper and was satisfied I had the basic shapes. I’d already washed and ironed some very pale fabric, but left it vaguely damp. I re-did the paint on the acetate, laid the fabric down, put paper over the top and rolled like heck with a brayer. I lifted it off quickly before the two bonded together and there it was – my first monoprint on fabric. I repainted and lifted off another couple, so I would have some to play with.

    This is much more abstract than last month’s work, and I’m pleased with that. I want to do some stitching on top of the paint now, to put some details in here and there. Oh, and while I was at it, I layered the base photo and the fabric monoprint on top of each other in Photoshop – just to see what would happen.

    Original photo and fabric monoprint, layered in Photoshop.

  • Full tide #1 – enjoying our beach

    I have been really intrigued by the Watermarks blog; a collaboration between some fabulous artists who are all inspired by water in one form or another. The artists are Vivien Blackburn, Lindsay Olson, Katherine Tyrrell, Laura Frankstone, Gesa Helms, Jeanette Jobson, Tina Mammoser, Sarah Wimperis and Ronell van Wyk.

    Stay with me through a little geography. Where we live, Patea, is on the west coast of the north island of New Zealand. Patea is built on top of 200 foot cliffs, only about a golf course width back from the edge in places. From our home, at the beach end of town, we look out across the golf course to the Tasman Sea. About 2 minutes drive away is Mana Bay and the sea walls that give the fishing boats access to the sea – being the west coast, the seas can be treacherous. The road down to the beach settlement, about 10 houses in all, is quite steep and has a couple of lookouts along the way.

    At the beach itself, there is a jetty, the sea walls, two beaches separated by the Patea River which flows down from a hydro dam, a rock wall that protects the far shoreline and a beach that is really a tidal river edge. All the sand is black iron-sand; the Japanese mined here for iron-sand until the early 80s.

    I love to go down there are look around; sometimes I take Mum down, just to get her out of the house for a bit. In summer the iron-sand gets incredibly burn-your-feet hot. And to that the summer colours of sunset in our clear skies, and the feeling can be one of almost overwhelming heat. Hot skies, hot sand, hot colours, hot summer air. All against the beautiful clear blue of the Tasman Sea.  

    I have been working small again, 4×8″ on gallery wrap canvas, and exploring how I feel about summer at the beach here. This one, Full Tide #1, is for sale on ArtFire.  There’ll certainly be more to come; I love the colours, and the memories that inspire these works.full-tide-11

  • So inspiring

    The view out to sea at the moment is so inspiring that I can feel a wee series coming on. This weekend I can going to spend some time playing with thumbnail sketches, thinking about colour and texture and composition and … you get the idea!

    Next year one of the exhibitions I have coming up requires landscape oriented canvases no less than 60cm wide. So, I’m thinking very narrow and very long; perhaps just capturing the waves in action in a fairly abstract way.

  • Isn’t it lovely?

    This started as a photo of water cascading over the sea walls in Mana Bay, taken by local Gwen Broughton. Magic!

  • *this* is what inspires me


    I live in very rural New Zealand. Yes it’s a bit run-down, yes it has some problems, yes the old freezing works is a bit of an eyesore. But you know what? When I look at this photo, freezing works ruin included, I just see the beauty. How can I not be inspired with such stunning views around me?

    One photo is looking up the river towards the old works, the other is looking out to sea. That’s the local volunteer coastguard rescue boat you can see, having a practice run. Tony is a medic with them. Where would we be without volunteers…