As I mentioned a post or two back, I recently purchased some books on drawing from Amazon, wanting to get back to the confident mark making I used to enjoy. In the last week or so I have been looking at the work of artists I follow online and have realised many of them incorporate strong mark-making in their works. Have a look at Sandra Toornstra, Martha Marshall and Rebecca Crowell. Often there is a sense of the work having many layers, something I appreciate also.
While Tony and I were away last weekend I went to Gordon Harris Art Supplies and bought, well, art supplies 😉 I wanted more mark making tools so I got charcoal, graphite, Neocolor water soluble crayons, oil pastels, Posca pens etc, all in black. Plus some tubes of black or white paint to add to my stocks. Today I sat down at my desk with some off-white Canson pastel paper and got bold and messy – Tony says I have paint on my face. (and?) Already I can feel some of the marks that were ‘mine’ while at art school reasserting themselves, alongside a new capacity to work in layers with (a little) more patience than before. Here’s one of today’s attempts to loosen up and get making my mark, plus a cropped version to see what they would look like.
2011. Cath Sheard
2011. Cath Sheard
Cath Sheard 
This is awesome black and white energy! It looks alive…
Keep going Cath,
best wishes from germany, tj
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Hello Cath,
These bold marks are wonderful!! I love the black and white simplicity with the strong, confident marks. I can imagine the piece framed and hanging on the wall.
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Bold, beautiful, confident marks!
I just knew you were going to say you’d used black India ink
and a rigger brush in this piece. I adore that look,,,and it’s how it appears to me.
Bravo!
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I meant to add that it feels very musical to me.
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