I ordered a few new stencils, designed by Elizabeth St Hilaire, from Joggles recently. I’ve got a few sets by Elizabeth and love them all. This time I got the Picasso mask and stencil set, and a few individual stencils. I had a play today, and think I’m going to get a lot of use from these.
I bought myself one of the small 6×6 Dina Wakley journals, which have lovely thick watercolour paper, and the new Art by Marlene Artsy Arabia paper elements. Love them! I’m having so much fun playing in this smaller format with the Dina Wakley gloss sprays, DWM acrylic paints, a few stencils and the paper elements.
Today’s #cjs20 artist is Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk – I hadn’t seen her work before, and really like it. I’m pleased with my piece although the scanner refused to pick up the fluro colours so it’s actually got brighter highlights than this shows.
I’ve done Creative Jump Start a few times over the years, but missed last year. I decided to join #CSJ20 with Nathalie Kalbach again this year. I’m always a day behind because of the timing but some people don’t post every day so – shrugs!
I’ll share my creations every day but not the full challenge details out of respect for it being a paid class. If you want to find out more or join in, click on Nathalie’s link. I always find I learn heaps, and am reminded of techniques I’ve enjoyed in the past.
Today I used a favourite photo of Monte Cassino Abbey from our 2010 trip as the starting point, then cut multiple stencils from paper. Once the paint was dry I added a few pen lines. This is not my usual style, but it was fun, and I’d certainly use the process again.
I taught an art journal class on Thursday night and a gelli print class on Saturday in Greymouth, through Left Bank Art Gallery. The classes were held at CoRe, a fantastic community facility run by Cassandra Struve, one of those people who has so much passion for community development and can see the possibilities then act on them.
Some of the people who attended didn’t want to be photographed, which is fine, so these photos are entirely representative. People seemed to get a lot out of it and enjoy the processes. I had brunch with Penny Kirk yesterday and spotted a women who had attended the gelli class. I said hi and she told me she’s already turning her gelli prints into cards and will be buying her own gelli plate.
I’m already talking with Cassandra about running more classes in the new year, taking people to the next level with art journals and printing. As I said to Tony this morning, it’s funny that when you travel away you quite often get more support than at home. Perhaps when you’re local people assume you don’t have much to offer, or figure they can catch you any time?
Here’s a few photos of the classes and what people created. Enjoy!
Cath Sheard Art 