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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Gloria J Zucaro's "Doin' Somethin'"

Even though I am not posting as frequently, I have been doing some things.  Like more cards, enjoying my ATC cards that I got from other artists, doing thumbnails sketches in preparation for my 3-day Plein Air workshop with Frankie Johnson, and using scraps to make some very textural ATC cards.  I also took a couple of pictures of my work area.  Perhaps if I start linking to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, I will get more organized!  I am linking this to Paint Party Friday.  Be sure to visit and see what everyone has been up to.

After this week I will be gone to Albuquerque, NM for the IAPS(International Association of Pastel Societies). My fellow artist Dottie Carringi and I will fly into Albuquerque Tuesday the 4th, rent a car and drive up the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe where we will spend the night. Then Wednesday we will take the "high road" up to Taos, spend the day and the night. Thursday we drive back to Albuquerque and start our round of 2 demos a day for 4 days at the convention.  And,of course, we will force ourselves to go to see all the new pastels and accessories offered by the vendors.  We are meeting up with two of our other artists friends from IL, too, so great fun and lots of new ideas and products.
One of the cards I made in a class to learn different ways to use my new Cricut machine.  I already gave the other card to my daughter as a "Thank You" for Mother's Day gifts.
Aleli, here is your card(finally)!




These are only a few of the wonderful cards received.  I would love to hear from anyone who received one of my 52.

This is all about learning to edit out all but the important aspects of what you see outside when doing Plein Air.  I was using three values and doing 2 to 3 sketches of the same scene(from my photos).  I realize outside it will be different, but I will have my View Finder, and still do my thumbnails before starting to paint.  One of the instructors I was working with laughed when I wrote "HELP!" under one of my sketches.  





Here I used Elmer's Glue-All to add scraps of torn papers over painted playing cards that had been glued to a map.  I will add more to these at a later date.

And finally my workspace(s)!




Sunday, May 19, 2013

Gloria J Zucaro's "Catching Up"

I love Sundays.  Although I do not go to an established church, I often during my days each week say "thanks" to my creator for small miracles and pieces of goodness in my life.  

Today I am posting pictures from the card-making class I attended this week at Stamp,Scrap N More in Mundelein.  I have made many cards but no layers, always with ink drawings and watercolor, or just tangled drawings in ink.  This was a structured class with "kits" for 5 cards. The woman leading the group had done a lot of the cutting out of materials and putting of each kits' supplies together in individual bags.  Thank you, Georgina! The reason I wanted to take the class was to learn the techniques and tools needed.  I did learn a lot about proper stamping techniques, applying fabric, metal, and paper and what glues to use, and the order in which to do these things.  Here are the cards......Have a wonderful day :>)




Thursday, May 16, 2013

Gloria J Zucaro's "City Rain"

I started this oil painting wanting to paint a rainy day in the city, using one-point perspective, but also people with colorful umbrellas.  I had no specific reference, so had to gather pictures of cars, buses, people with umbrellas, buildings in the city, reflections, etc.  I took my time and I am satisfied because it conveys the mood I wanted.   I am posting this to Paint Party Friday and to The Daily Paintworks Have a look at all the creative work going on at the party.

20"H x 16"W 
$400.00 Framed
$75.00 S&H in US






Gloria J Zucaro's "See More"

Here are the next eight in the Theme ATC's "Glasses".












Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Gloria J Zucaro's "ATC's Theme Glasses"

I had a lot of fun with this month's theme.  I used catalogs, old story books and magazine ads for the basic background pictures.  Then I added gesso, paint, glitter, line drawings, and of course the glasses!   Here are a few of the 21 cards I made.  There were fewer than usual artists present, so I only traded 5.  That means more for you to trade with me if you would like! :>)




Monday, May 13, 2013

Gloria J Zucaro's "ATC Theme Umbrellas"

April's theme with our ATC group was umbrellas.  Here are a few I did just before leaving on my road trip with my Mom. We had our May meeting last weekend, so I will post those another time.






Friday, May 10, 2013

Gloria J Zucaro's "Many Thanks"

A strange thing happened.  I went on my trip and really enjoyed the respite from all the online challenges I had been doing for over a year.  When I returned in early April, I found that when I started looking at the challenges again each week, I felt a strong resistance to doing them.  True, I have had family and other life issues lately,but definitely my first real artist block.  So I am starting back slowly with odds and ends of projects.  Here is a small 6 x 6 cotton canvas panel I learned how to texturize last weekend.  First we added a very thick almost paste-like matte medium and then while it was wet we layered papers, eyelet lace, bottle caps, corrugated cardboard, torn paper pieces, buttons, pieces of different artificial flowers and string.  They were all coated with the medium as well.  We used a heat gun to dry the surface.  Then we completely covered the entire surface of each piece with white gesso.  Dried it, then sprayed the surface with two colors of spray inks.  After that was dry, we dry-brushed on black acrylic and highlighted the edges of things with the gesso.  We did that two-step process a couple of times until we were satisfied with the depth it created.  Then we glued on the rhinestones.  It was fun and easy and could be applied to larger art pieces.  The class was held at Stamp, Scrap 'N More in Mundelein,Il.

Then I was really pleased to get a wonderful journal as a gift from Judy Shea who is a wonderful multimedia artist at http://thekeytomyart.wordpress.com.  My name was a random pick from her comment list.  Here is the gorgeous journal.  I love the gilded edges and all the beads and colors.  Oh, and Judy also makes her own button shapes and other pieces to add to your journal pages and covers.  She sent those along as an extra special surprise.





Thank you so much, Judy!  I am a happy camper!

Next, a big "Thank You" to my daughter for the time she spent before Easter to buy these kits from Ebay and for putting them all together for my Easter hostess/Moms gift.  They are so beautiful!  When my children were young, we would go to a craft store in East Dundee, Illinois called Lee Ward's to buy these kits to make holiday ornaments together.  So these hold great memories, too.  I still have them on my mantel.  Thank you, Lucy! :>)



I am posting this to Paint Party Friday, as I have missed a whole month or more!