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Friday, December 16, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's "One Day In March"

My painting today has gone through a complete transformation.  It was much more intense in color, as my paintings seem to be.  But I wasn't satisfied with it because although I love strong color, it wasn't saying what I wanted to remember and tell you about.  
One day last March I was out on some rural back roads taking photos of barns and fields. It was our typical very gray, cold, damp and windy March day. Suddenly I came upon a patch of exposed dried grass and a beautiful old barn with several coats of peeling paint. I loved it immediately because I am partial to pale aqua/blue.  The warmth of the layers of paint brightened up the whole field! 
I am posting to Paint Party Friday.  Thank you Eva and Kristin.  
If I don't see you again until the new year, have a wonderful Christmas, or Holiday of your persuasion. 
"One Day In March"
Oil on Gallery-wrapped Canvas
16"H x 20"W

Friday, December 9, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Farm at Old McHenry and Route 22"

This week I am so happy to have been chosen by the random generator to show examples of my art on Paint Party Friday, hosted by Kristin and Eva.  There are at least 60-80 artists every week exhibiting on this wonderful site.  You truly get to know your fellow contributors from around the world.

This week I will keep it short and simple!


I finished to my liking a scene from a photo taken from my car at an intersection- while stopped at the red light, of course!  I was attracted to the cluster of farm buildings and a typical Mid-Western farmhouse.  The painting went through extreme changes as I progressed.  I printed it in color and black and white.  I had done a thumbnail sketch of it in my class with Kim Casebeer and also used that as a guide.   The bottom sketch below is my thumbnail of this scene.


Then when deciding what colors to use, I leafed through a copy of National Geographic and found a page that appealed to me.  But even there my colors drifted into more of the blues and purples than the pale yellows and violets. This is the end result.  Titled "The Farm at Old McHenry and Route 22".
10"H x 20"W. Oil on gallery wrapped canvas.

Thank you for visiting and for leaving your comments.
And thank you again, Kristin and Eva for giving me this opportunity!
Happy PPF, everyone!

Gloria

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's "Lately"

Today I have some paintings that I have done in the time I have been absent. Posting to Paint Party Friday where you can see many beautiful projects done by artists around the world. Hosted,"thank you!" by Kristine and Eva, for our benefit.  
The following paintings are from the Joan Fullerton workshop I took at Mainstreet Art Center in Lake Zurich, IL the first weekend in November.  Joan was excellent at making new territory so much fun!  I am normally not a very intuitive or an abstract thinker.  But she gave us some guidelines that could be applied anywhere on our paper or canvas.  
This was done with acrylic paint, silver leaf that I stained with blue paint, a tree stencil in the sky area with clear gel that made a neat texture when dry.

Acrylic paint-black and buff, gesso,text magazine pieces, stencils, pen marks, music score.  We all used our own materials but were to use only black and white paint.   
This one has a theme of linking land masses with bridges to that say we are all connected.

This one has layers of paper and stencils.  I used a mask of a crow photo to expose what I had covered with the paint.  I then added the tree stencil.

This was the first one we did.  It is acrylics on watercolor paper.

I think I need to do some more work on this one.  But it reminds me of tornadoes, so maybe I will develop that with a landscape and an angry sky?


Below are some pictures I took at The Pearl District in San Antonio, TX while visiting my mother.  This is part of a beautiful hotel that has been done in a refurbished factory.  I love the sort of steam-punk feel!


Have a great week! 
 Happy PPF.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's, Susan Ploughe's "Waterways" Workshop

     I posted so lte last week so am posting this again to Paint Party Friday this week.
This week I took Susan Ploughe’s three day workshop called “Waterways”.   If you are a member of The Venice Art Center in Venice Florida, you have a treat in store!  I understand Susan Ploughe will doing a workshop soon in your location.
In our workshop we went through written information, photos of various types of water and paintings by other artist of lakes, streams, waterfalls, the ocean, reflections and still clear waters.  Susan also did a short demo for each type before we began our own paintings.  She printed out four or five examples for us to pick from and to use as references. In the three days we did six paintings each.  It was not important that you finished a whole painting but that you tried out the technique that helped the viewer recognize the type of water setting you were trying to describe.
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I always enjoy Susan’s workshops because she makes learning and improving my skills both fun and inspiring.  She makes me feel that I am getting better, and shows me alternative ways to get there.  I like the fact that if I am not understanding a certain concept she will pull out an extra surface and demonstrate what she was advocating.  She will not paint on your canvas unless she asks you first, and always suggests that you change it afterward to your own stroke, so that it is “all yours”.  Susan is a nationally awarded painter with The Oil Painters of America and has paintings exhibited in galleries and in magazine articles.  We are so lucky to have her teaching classes and workshops on a regular basis at the Mainstreet Art Centre in Lake Zurich, IL.   You can see Susan Ploughe’s website at  http://susanploughe.com/

I will be posting to Paint Party Friday(late!), Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
My waterfall study done from a copyright free photo
12" x 9" oil on canvas board.

My Waves Study from a painting by Ivan Aivazovsky
12" x 9" oil on canvas board

My Calm Shallow Water Study from copyright free photo
9" x 12" oil on canvas board

My Reflections Study from Copyright Free Photo
8" x 10" on canvas sheet

My Shadows, Ripples, Reflections Study from Copyright Free Photo
8" x 10" oil on canvas sheet

My Mountain/Lake Reflections Study
8" x 10" oil on canvas sheet

Have a great week.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Gloria


Friday, November 11, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's "Going Up"

Good Morning!  It has been forever since I have posted.  I got overwhelmed by family changes, construction, illness and death.  In other words..."LIFE!"  All is more sane now, so I have posted to the site called Paint My Photo where you can find all sorts of free photographs to use in your artwork.
I used one of the photographers photos for my abstract acrylic collage piece called "Going Up?"  I was thinking of old time elevators where an attendant was the one in control of the workings of the elevator in fancy hotels and residences.
I will be posting to Paint Party Friday, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.   I took Joan Fullerton workshop last weekend and assembled my piece during her class.  What fun! Have a wonderful week,
                                                                 Gloria
140 lb. watercolor paper, acrylic high flo paint,stencils,gesso,Gelli plate papers, old text, photo transfer of suspension bridge(https://pmp-art.com/nicola-b/gallery/115775/humber-bridge)

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's "Rocks and Mountains"

It has been a long time since I posted!  I have been taking an excellent online mentoring class with Kim Casebeer.  Kim is a superb Plein air landscape artist.  She gives the assignment on Tuesdays. They include two demonstrations on a video, a PDF of the lesson with a supplies list, her reference photos, her demos and her self-critique.  We do the lesson and email photos of our references if we have not used hers, and photos of our paintings in oil or pastel.  She gives us a critique on that following Thursday.
I have gotten behind for the last two weeks because of various exhibitions and shows I have been in or helped with.  I also am in process of remodeling, so have meetings with contractors, etc.  Tonight I am moving knicknacks and shelf contents out, so contractors will have room to "do their thing" at 8am tomorrow morning!
But I wanted to share what I have been working on lately.  The last lesson I started was "Rocks and Mountains".  I used my own reference from our trip to California last summer.  I think it came out pretty well, but I will enjoy hearing the critique when I turn it in.  To complete this lesson I still have to do my rock painting, which I am dreading!  So many surfaces, so many values!  So many colors!

This is on a piece of canvas taped to a backer board.  It looks a little wavy and the sky should be a little more evenly light blue.

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.  Have a wonderful week and I am glad you stopped by.  Gloria

Friday, May 6, 2016

Gloria J Zucaro's "Snow Queens Four"

Hello!, Happy Mother's Day to all.  I just finished a mixed media piece that I really enjoyed making.  I did a lot of collage , paint, and scribbling underneath the portraits of my snow queens.  After they were dry I used a stencil and modeling paste to create the dimensional snowflakes around the fur of their hoods.

Thankfully most of our Winter has disappeared into blooming Spring flowers and the Robins return!  Have a good week, and thank you for visiting! :>)

I am posting to Paint Party Friday, so check all the wonderful artwork displayed there!                              Paint Party Friday

Friday, February 19, 2016

"Japanese Gardens"

I can't believe this month has gone by so quickly. I had to remove a lot of stuff from my studio because I needed some electrical updates.  Now, how to put my room back together in a more efficient way!  I did do one or two oils this month.  One is finished and framed, the other is renewed with some changes.  I am linking to Paint Party Friday as well as Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Facebook.


"Japanese Gardens"
Oil on Canvas
18H x 24W

"A Sunny Day In Russia"
Oil on Canvas


Have great week,
Gloria

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

"Anselm Kiefer Abstract and Jodi Ohl Birds"

Tonight I have a couple of different projects. 

My first two photos are of practice birds  that were a homework assignment to do in my journal given in Jodi Ohl's "Dirty Flirty Birds" workshop. I can see a lot more practice is needed to make the birds come alive. I have a story going on but the birds are just OK.
"Secrets"


Eagle,Fly the Flag



The second project is the Anselm Kiefer project inspired by Nathalie Kalbach for Creative Jumpstart 2016. She did an abstract and attached organic elements to it. I started with black gesso, then put on crackle medium. When that dried, I added dryer lint for the bird, ink in black and white, a touch of burnt sienna acrylic paint over the crackle, some red paint mixed with gel medium and some aqua ink mixed with white gesso, then I added two ball bearings to the aqua "pools". I wrote in German, because Kiefer usually wrote something, my words meaning "Go fast, fly away!"
"Wegfliegen Schnell"
Have a great day,
Gloria :>) happy PPF!


Linking to Paint Party Friday.




Sunday, January 31, 2016

"I've Fallen Behind and I Can't Catch Up!"

This week real life had to be attended to so I got behind in my Creative Jumpstart 2016.  The week of Picasso inspired projects was from January 19 through the 24th.  I am posting my last project first and then the final pictures from each project before it. This morning is the last day of Jumpstart 2016 and it has been wonderful.  What a great experience!  I had so much fun and learned so much. Thank you Nathalie Kalbach and all the participating artists who led the demos.  I still have the week of projects on Anselm Kiefer to do but the project videos are mine forever, so no problem catching up as I can.  I also started Jodi Ohl's class "Dirty Flirty Birds" on the 20th, but had to stop with those for this past week, too.  I will be able to more forward with both classes, now that gathering tax papers, getting car stickers, complaining in person to Comcast, and on the phone to Apple, moving furniture for deliveries,paying bills, etc. has passed! 
I am linking to Paint Party Friday, so take a look at that site which offers creative endeavors from many talented artists.
Picasso Peacock Led By Miriam Schulman
Stage one, background paint, then collaged papers with drawing of Peacocks.

Gessoed over Peacock, added green oil pastel in background

Stenciled "spines",added lines in headdress, blue ink on bodies

Added "eyes" to spines and eyes to Peacocks in white paint.
Added white "V's" on spines, red beaks, lines in background, yellow, red and white in all eyes

Picasso Fish Collage with Gwen Lafleur

Tulip Painting with Catherine Scanlon

Two-Layer Cardboard Picasso with Marsha Valk

Picasso Fragmented Objects with Nathalie Kalbach

Have a wonderful week and Thank You for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you are so inclined.  Gloria









Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Picasso via Nathalie Kalbach on Defragmented Explorations

That is a long title!  Basically in Nathalie's demo she explained a very interesting concept. You pull out 4 or 5 small objects with nice shapes and draw them onto your surface with pencil. You draw their backs, their fronts, their bottoms, their tops, their sides!  You start with one object, drawing it from one viewpoint and then as you draw the others you fill up the entire surface. This is my version, using some objects I had lying around. A soft bodied paint bottle, a small pair of scissors, a 2" paint brush, a pencil sharpener and a scotch tape dispenser. Her final project looked more cubist because she shaded her objects. But I had fun and learned a lot while doing it. 
I used oil pastels and Neocolor watersoluble pastels and a Sharpie oil marker for outlining. Oh, I used some Derwent Inktense pencils and Liquitex paint markers, too.
Cubist Project

In the beginning

Have a nice night,
See you tomorrow I hope. :>)

Gloria




Monday, January 25, 2016

"Picasso, Marsha Valk and Double Trouble!"

My next Picasso project had me stumped for a couple of days.  The demo by Marsha Valk was absolutely fabulous, but quite complicated. I decided I wouldn't do all the steps she showed us, so instead of stripping the top layer of cardboard and exposing the inner structure, I opted for doing a stencil on the bottom layer instead.  Well, you will see below!
Here is the final Project picture.  Sorry the photo is warped!
Step one, coat one piece of cardboard with matte medium on one side and paint on the other. With the other piece of cardboard draw your outlines for your second layer.


I coated the cutout with gesso and white paint because of the tape on it.  The other side was coated with matt medium beforehand.

While that dried, I stenciled the background of the bottom layer. And being somewhat new to stenciling, I learned that you don't use soft body acrylics and ink to stencil!  I wiped the mess off and used two red shades of heavy bodied paint.

Starting to lay in colors.


Putting it all together with heavy Gel Medium

Have a great night!  Do some art!
Gloria








"Picasso, Scanlon and Tulips!"

Tonight I am posting my project from the demo by Catherine Scanlon, with Creative Jumpstart 2016. Catherine did a watercolor floral inspired by Picasso. I thought I would do watercolor, but ended up using my acrylics and inks again as well as some Silks on the flower petals.
The final painting below.

Steps 1 and 2

Starting to fill in

Hope to see you for my next Picasso creation!
Gloria



Thursday, January 21, 2016

Inspired By Picasso

This week our Creative Jumpstart 2016 master artist for inspiration is Pablo Picasso.  Our first project instructor is Gwen LaFleur, and what a really fun demo she did!  Her subject was mixed-media fish.  I love fish too, so I did my own version of a Picasso using fish as the theme.  The final journal spread with the steps below.



Paint border with black and red.


Get ready to go fishing!  Add Water.


Glue on strips of paper to fit fish body.  Then Outline, and add googly eyes....Done!