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Monday, April 30, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "A Bird on the Bod is Worth?!"

7"H x 5"W Pastel on board
$65.00 unframed/$10.00 S&H
Framing Options tab at top of blog page

The inspiration for this painting is from a photograph of a statue in Florence, Italy taken by Lee A Brown and offered for the April challenge on his website called "A Day Not Wasted".  I am hoping that even though I just posted, that this got in just under the wire! My artist friend Judy and her husband just got back from Arizona.  Judy is a pastel and watercolor artist. So when she is in town I try to do at least one pastel painting a week. We will be joining Bonnie Paruch for a "Flowers and Gardens of Door County" workshop in August at The Clearing Folk School. It is a great week of all day painting, and eating fabulous home cooked meals with 18 painters,18 woodworkers, and 18 poets!  We have a party on Friday night to show and tell all our works accomplished for that week.  

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "De Deux Poires"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Panel
$35.00/$7.00 S&H
To see framing options, see tab at top of this page

For some reason on days when I don't have anything in particular in mind to paint, pears and apples come to mind.  Is that like com"pear"ing apples and oranges?!  I decided on some nice plump pears.  And to give them extra humph, I decided they are French pears, la-di-da! 

This painting is entered in the Artist's Playroom with the theme of "rainbow", hosted by Jennifer Mclean at  http://www.justaddwatersilly.com/search/label/APR

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Gold & Blue"

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

On the last day of the Dreama Tolle Perry workshop, the artists were either finishing up paintings started in the four previous days or starting new ones.  I decided to paint some pansies that were on the table set for us with coffee and fresh baked goods from Cary Jurrians,the owner of the Whidbey Island Fine Art School, and a terrific baker.  I love Spring flowers and now that I am home in Illinois have put out several containers of these colorful flowers.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Pick Me Up At Eight"


5"H x 7"W on Stretched canvas Original Oil painting

See framing options tab above.

This week's Daily Paintworks Challenge is to crop a larger reference photo using any part of the photo that you wish.  To me there were a couple of areas that caught my eye.  this vintage automobile and the circular porch roof.  Here is the reference photo.  Which areas would you have chosen to paint?






Thursday, April 19, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Columbia In The Morning"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Panel

Today I did this painting for my entry into Ria Hills and Pamela White's "Shoot and Paint" challenge for the month of April.  Ria did a wonderful painting of her latte.  The challenge is paint your mug or cup with your coffee or tea, or even your O.J., if that is what you drink in the morning.  I really enjoy my one cup of Folgers 100% Colombian coffee every morning in my favorite polka-dotted coffee mug.  Be sure to visit Ria's blog to see the other entries.

This is also my entry into Paint Party Friday, hosted by Eva & Kristin.  Go on over and see all the entries for this 4/20/12 Friday.


I found a new spot of wonderful artists!  I just posted this painting to The Artist's Playroom with Jennifer Mclean.



Monday, April 16, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "How Are Ewe?"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Panel
Questions?


This weeks Daily Paintworks Challenge is called "The Up-close Animal Challenge" offered by Taryn Day.  Taryn did a sheep's head.  I decided I would also do a sheep, but a different one which I again searched for my reference on Wet Canvas in their image library.  For some reason I was spooked by the look of the sheep's eyes!?  So instead of running away as fast as possible, I just stared him down.  And guess what he said to me "How are Ewe?" in a very soothing and soft voice.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Church of Saint Mary, Gdansk, Poland"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on panel
Questions?


This is my April entry into the Virtual Paintout.  This month we are walking through Gdansk, Poland.  This is The Church of Saint Mary.  The skyline of the cathedral and the adjacent buildings silhouetted  in a stormy sky was what attracted my attention. To see the street view I used, go to this link  http://g.co/maps/e2p5h      I under-painted with transparent oils.  


This is also my entry for Paint Party Friday.  I have missed almost a month of Fridays!  Happy PPF!.    

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Summer Sun

8"H x 8"W x 1/8"D
Oil on Board
Using Transparent oils under opaque oil for great glow!
SOLD 
Another fun project done during Dreama's workshop.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Little Red Truck"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Panel

I did this painting from my reference photo of a farmstead in McHenry, IL.  There was a little snow on the ground and the stormy sky suggested that we might get more.  This was also done the third day of the Dreama Tolle Perry workshop, and I blocked in with the transparent oils.  I am really enjoying the wonderful mix of colors you get with them under the more opaque paints. I love the truck in this photo and the sunshine and shadow mood.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Even While Sleeping!"

6"H x 6"W  Oil on Panel


The Daily Paintworks challenge this week is a "reclining" figure.  I didn't have a photo of a reclining figure, so I used one of the images on Wet Canvas.  WC has a huge image library of copyright free photos.  This young man has fallen asleep with his phone open, hence the title of my painting.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Panel

On our third workshop day, Dreama did a chunky demo of a teacup.  Then we had the choice of using her photographic reference or our own photo.  I had been wanting to paint my cookie jar for a while now so I used my own photo. I used the transparent oils as the block-in.  Under the lid I used Indian Yellow and I think Sap Green and Rose under the body of the jar.  You can see the difference in warmth.  My cookie jar sits on my green tile kitchen counter that I just love and have put in several of my pastel paintings. You can see them on my website.  www.gloriajzucaro.com   There were cookies for us at the workshop, so I added those to the composition.  My cookie jar at home sits empty most of the time, because if I baked or filled it from the grocery, it would soon be empty anyway!  I love cookies!

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Santa Monica Beach "

12"H x 12"W Oil on Board
Click on the painting to enlarge
Questions?
This is my painting from Dreama's reference of Santa Monica beach.  Reference photo below.  I added the palms on the left and eliminated the path with the people.  I like the sort of Gauguin look.  The glow on the sunny side of the umbrella is from putting transparent Indian Yellow beneath the white during the block-in process.

Colors vary due to differences in lighting and monitors.



Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Study Day One"

12"H x 12"W oil on board
This painting has been donated to The Heart of good Shepherd Hospital "Let's have Tea" fundraiser held to promote awareness of heart disease in women.  And it sold!

My supplies from the Dreama Tolle Perry workshop arrived late yesterday.  On our first day we had introductions and a name tag with an affirmation given to us.  After our intro we were to read our affirmation.  My name tag got displaced around the fourth day, but my affirmation was something like"the world is a better place because I share my creative talents."  Next we learned about the palette starting with transparent oils and the addition of the rest of the palette colors.  Afterward Dreama started her "chunky" demo for this painting above.  The term chunky referring to the process of demoing in three or four parts so that we wouldn't forget how she had started.  At the end of each part we returned to our easels and painted up to where that part of the demo had ended using a photo she had given each of us.   It was a fun and interesting first day!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Gloria J Zucaro's "Race For The Eggs!"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil Painting on canvas panel
Sold


Well, I am finally home and well enough to paint!  I had a wonderful 10 day trip to the pacific     Northwest to visit an old friend in Anacortes,Washington for 3 days then drove down Whidbey Island to the town of Langley.  The Whidbey Island Fine Art School operated by Cary Jurrians was hosting a Dreama Tolle Perry workshop for 5 days.  I was intrigued by Dreama's use of transparent oils in her paintings and her wonderful writings and paintings in her blog posts, so just forced myself to take a trip out to see her in person! LOL!  Any excuse!  I am so glad that I did because Dreama is a wonderful instructor and a fun and giving person.  I met lots of other artists from across the USA, too, and we hope to keep in touch.  Cary was an absolutely wonderful hostess with fresh fruit, coffee and homemade baked goods every morning.  Faye Castle , the class monitor was such a help with any questions about supplies, restaurants, and putting out all the goodies every day. Cary and her husband hosted us for dinner on Sunday with the most wonderful homemade breads, choices of pasta, salad and fresh berry cobbler for dessert.  I stayed at a lovely B & B called Country Cottage of Langley operated by Tom and Jacki Stewart.   A beautiful waterview room with delicious breakfasts every morning.  They were eager to arrange meal times and anything else you might need.  The last night I was there I came down with  "stay up all night" stomach issues.  They were so kind and brought crackers and gingerale, ginger tea, ginger chews to try to ease my upset.  I slept later than checkout and they gave me help with the suitcases to the car and insisted I take a banana to see if I could keep that down a little later.  That trip home was not the best I have ever experienced!  But all is well!

Now for the painting above...This is the weekly challenge from the Daily Paintworks site.  The theme is anything Easter.  So here is a still life of one of my Easter decorations.