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Thursday, September 29, 2011

Gloria J Zucaro's "Cherry Drop"

Original Oil on Watercolor paper.  11"H x 7"W  There is a watercolor wash under the oil paint.
  SOLD


Somehow whenever you are in Door County Wisconsin during cherry season you always end up painting them several times. 

Monday, September 26, 2011

Let The Tone Show Challenge "Fall-N-Leaves"

8"H x 8"W  Original Oil 
$75.00 Unframed/ $90.00 Framed in plain black wooden frame.
NLA

Unframed/Framed
         Thank you Ann, for this exciting challenge.  I have admired many of your peek-a-boo paintings and now a great challenge.  I started with a background tone of an acrylic paint called Hotshots Fluorescent Acrylics in Fiery Red.  Then came the olive green in random brush strokes, then the dark maple leaf forms with much of the red showing through.  Next came my favorite, turquoise leaves, some more touches of green in a lighter value, and some brush strokes of alizarin crimson,cobalt and dioxine purple in the dark leaves.  I really had fun doing something totally different today.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Gloria J Zucaro's "French Bread & Brie"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Raymar Panel
SOLD

  There is no wine here because I had this delicious meal for breakfast, although I could have included my cup of espresso in the painting! 

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

"Don't Touch My Stuff!" The Kat or Kaboodle Challenge


12"H x 12"W x 1.50"D     Oil on gallery wrapped canvas
SOLD
This is the latest challenge from the Daily Paintworks site.  This challenge is offered by Dreama Tolle Perry.
We were to paint her adorable kitten, named "Kat" or to paint his toys.  I did a little of both!  I have two cats myself, so know how cute, but sometimes mischevious and possessive they can be, too!

The Limited Stroke Challenge- "A Real Lemon!" Study #2

Study#2
In my second painting, I wanted to try to use even less strokes.  I tried for half of the 25 aiming for 13.  So instead of doing the blue bottle in 2 pieces of blue and pieces of light blue and yellow, I painted the bottle cobalt in all one stroke, using a lot of paint mixed with mineral spirits.  Then I added the light blue reflection and the reflection from the yellow over the transparent blue. So instead of using 4 strokes on the bottle, I used three.  For the shadow behind the bottle, which had some light in it from light coming through the bottle, I mixed the basic shadow color and then added a little more blue because I thought it was too brown.  A happy accident happened and the blue which was not thoroughly mixed on my brush made the effect of a light shining through the bottle, all in one stroke.  That effect had taken me three strokes the first time around.  Two for the two different colors and one to correct the value.   I did the lemon in three stokes instead of 4 the second time. The biggest save on strokes was in the background and foreground.  I mixed a lot of very liquid paint and did both the background in two strokes opposed to 3 and foreground in one stroke instead of two.  I also left out the more minor highlights on the bottle.  I used a #10 (worn) flat for this study, also saving more strokes.

Now if you are not a painter, please don't look at the drawing aspect!  I know that my bottle is lopsided in both studies and that the lemon is very sharp-nosed!  Those things were not the object of the challenge.

The Limited Stroke Challenge- "A Real Lemon!" Study #1

Study#1
This challenge was really fun and a great learning tool. The object to use as few strokes as possible to do a very simple painting.  If you lift the brush off the surface, your stroke is done.  I had learned from a wonderful artist,Diane Rath, who recently died of cancer, about loading your brush fully and smoothly using your whole arm to move the brush up and down (with darks, to lower the reflection) and side to side (with lights to catch more light reflection) in one easy stroke.  I did the challenge twice.  The first time I allowed myself 25 strokes.  I was able to complete the first challenge in 23 strokes initially.  I used the extra two strokes to go over the two areas to darken them.  I used a # 6 worn down flat brush for this first study(edges had rounded down quite a bit).


Thursday, September 15, 2011

The Black & White to Color Challenge"Crystal Light"

10"H x 8"W Oil        $115.00 Framed
S&H to your ZIP
To Purchase, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro


This was a really enjoyable picture to paint.  I sort of rearranged things a little bit, as I usually do by looking from a little different angle,making the crystal decanter larger and scooting over the small crystal ball and window closure.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Gloria J Zucaro's 4Value Color Version"Island in the Clouds"

9"H x 11.75"W Original Oil on Board
$100.00 Unframed


  Here is my colorized version of my 4Value challenge for the Daily Paintworks site.
I painted it over the burnt sienna & white under-painting and let a little of the under-tone show through.  If you go to the DPW site, this painting will be in my gallery and you can see it with the zoom feature which will show the brushstrokes more clearly.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Gloria J Zucaro's Four Value Challenge "Island In The Clouds"

9"H x 11.75"W  Original Oil on Board

This is the Sept 10, 2011 weekly challenge from the Daily Paintworks site.  The project involves using 4 values to design your painting.  How to "Keep it simple".  Not as easy as it would seem!  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the challenge and realize how valuable it is to learn to decipher the different values in your 2D composition to make it as realistic as the original scene.  I used Burnt Sienna and white and plan to finish the painting in colors natural to the actual landscape.  This photo was taken in Busse Woods, near Schaumburg, Ill on the North side of Route 72.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Gloria J Zucaro's "Thirsty Bird"

16"H x 8"W Oil on Canvas panel.
$135.00 Framed
S&H to Your ZIP
To Purchase, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com
 This faucet with it's beautiful rust and corrosion was from a photograph that I chose from Frankie's Johnson's selections at the workshop at The Clearing.  We picked either the faucet or an old barn door to paint for studying texture, and then added our own items to complete the scene.  The little bird that I placed under the faucet is a gift from my sister-in-law whose beautiful package I painted in "The Present" challenge on the Daily Paintworks site.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Gloria J Zucaro's DPW Pig Challenge "Penelope Goes To The Beach"

8"H x 9.5"W Original Pastel Painting on Canson Paper

This item is for auction at the Daily Paintworks site starting bid $50.00 and the money will be donated to The Africa Challenge for starving children presented by Carol & David Marine.


Penelope's beach day started with a reference photo I had taken in 2009 in Fredericksburg, Tx while at a workshop with Cheri Christensen.  She was in a farmyard setting, but I knew where Penelope really wanted to be!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Gloria J Zucaro's "So Succulent"


12"H x 9"W Original Oil 
$120.00 Framed
S&H to your ZIP
To Purchase, email me at Gloria@gloriajzucaro.com

When deciding what to paint one day at the studio I noticed this very nice set-up of pots with artificial cacti.  I rearranged it to be a little tipsy and from more of a birds-eye view.  I love the colors and shapes!