Run,Run,Run!

I am in one of those dream states where you keep running faster and faster but can't get to where you are going!  Sorry I am two days late again!
I took a portrait class with Ann Feldman all day Friday.  She showed us her steps to painting a portrait.  It involved measuring for head height and width and then containing it all in a box and finding the center.
We all picked a different photo from the many she had brought.  I picked this man because of his attitude and Mona Lisa smirk!

my 8 x 10 painting on Gessobord.

The original photo

Enjoy Paint Party Friday.           I hope to visit you during the week.        Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Palette Knife & The Weather"

I loved a palette knife floral that Ann Feldman did a couple of months ago and asked her when she would be teaching another class for palette knife. She didn't have any until Spring she said, but would do a special one if I could get enough people.  So I rounded up artist friends and all nine of us had a great day with Ann. 

Ann did a landscape demo first thing in the morning and gave us a photo as a reference for our painting after the demo.

This week I touched up my two oil paintings I had done with Ann in her workshop.

Below is my landscape using the reference.  We drew a rough outline in paint with a small brush first, then started our painting with the palette knife.

10" x 8" on canvas sheet.

After lunch, Ann and I set-up three still life florals for the artists to choose from.  I had brought all the vases and flowers to use for the still life.  Ann did another demo and then we started painting our own florals from whichever set-up we chose.

My choice to paint.

10" x 8" on Canvas sheet.

As far as the weather...considering the dilemma in Buffalo, New York we are extremely lucky in Chicago.  Here are a couple of photos of our first little dusting of snow.  One at night when it was first falling, and one the nest day from my kitchen window.

The back yard (click on photo to see more clearly)

And finally here is my new fish tank on the chalk painted(and loaded with three coats of hand-applied wax!)table.

Real plants and two fish.  A Fancy-Tail Goldfish and a small Koi.

Did you know you should only put one inch of fish for each gallon of water?  So I have about 6" of fish in a ten gallon tank.  In a year I will need a 20 gallon tank!

I am linking this post to Paint Party Friday, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.Pinterest

Gloria J Zucaro's "I Think I Fractured Something!"

How much fun was that!  I did, I did fracture something and it didn't hurt a bit.  I was using Julie Ford Oliver's technique in our last "Contemporary Impressionism" class taught by Ann Feldman at Mainstreet Art Center.  I had bought Julie's Art Byte video on the Daily Paintworks site and watched it with fascination.  But I did not try the technique until Friday with Ann. There were 5 of us in that class and we all used as our reference a still life photo that Ann brought in. It was amazing when we finished to see how differently we all applied our fracturing tool.  Julie has devised a small squeegee and Ann made one for each of us in the class.  If you like the looks of this technique, buy Julie's video on the Daily Paintworks, or come in to Mainstreet in Lake Zurich, IL and take Ann's next class.   Below I have pictures of each of the paintings done in that class.  If you go to Ann's site, you will see her version that she posted today.  Be sure to click on the images to see the really neat details.

By Ginny Breecher

By Carol Breyer

By Maryann Pailey

By Linda Rubens

By Me, Gloria J Zucaro!  Mine is 10"H x 8"W on a previously painted surface.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Cityscape Study"

Yesterday we had another session with Ann Feldman for our oil painting group.  This time we had a review of One-Point Perspective.  Ann made it so easy for everyone to understand.  We all had different city scenes to paint and were to find the horizon line first, then look at all the slanted lines going toward it from above and below the horizon line.  Once we had those lines established we were freed up to apply any colors and shapes of building we desired.  Since we were using other artists' paintings as our reference, these are just studies for practice purposes only.  But now that we have revisited the rules for One Point Perspective, we can use this information with more confidence in anything we draw or paint.

10"H x 10"W Oil on Raymar Artist Quality Canvas Panel

Gloria J Zucaro's "Jack"

Today my painting is of a Jack Russel mix .  His name appropriately enough is "Jack"!  I found the photo on Paint My Photo.  The photographer's name is Leonard.  I chose the photo to do in an impressionistic workshop class with Ann Feldman.  I did most of it while at Mainstreet Art Centre, but refined it after I got home.  Isn't Jack an adorable puppy?!  I am posting this for my Paint Party Friday entry this week.  I had planned to finish a pastel I am working on since Monday, but family illness got in the way,,,next week!

12" Square Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel.

Click on image to enlarge.

For Sale Through Daily Paintworks

Gloria J Zucaro's "Golden Opportunity"

This my entry for Paint Party Friday, a weekly display from about 85 artists from all over the globe.  The site is hosted by Kristin and Eva,  Thank you, Ladies!
My painting today has undergone many changes.  I first painted it about 4 years ago.  I had all cornstalks in the background, and a very dark black shadow under the crow and all strokes on the pumpkin going one way, and a stem bottom showing on the pumpkin towards the right side of the canvas.  On Monday of this week Susan Ploughe who is one of the instructors at Mainstreet Art Center (where I go to paint with my artists friends a couple of times a week) asked us to all bring in a couple of our "duds", the paintings that did not work out as planned.  So I took my crow and pumpkin.  It was predominately orange and yellow over the whole painting, the pumpkin, the ground, the background of cornstalks.  There was some green in the leaves and some of the cornstalks, but otherwise all orange & yellow!  Susan had a sneaky idea up her sleeve!  She had us trade our paintings with someone else and we were each to work on the other person's painting, so that the painting would be looked at with a new perspective.  Susan told us that if we didn't like what the other person did with our painting we could just wipe it off with turp, since all our paintings were dry long ago.  Well, I worked on Corrine's Napa Valley painting and she worked on my crow.  Corrine merged all the cornstalks together with some different background colors that were impressionistic, and the painting was so much better, but it was still oranges, yellows and greens.  After I went home, I thought about it and decided that blue might be good with the orange, since they are compliments.  So today I changed the shape of the pumpkin, changed the direction of the strokes on the pumpkin, lightened the really dark shadow, as suggested by Ann Feldman, added many different colors to the leaves, made the broken piece of pumpkin shell the right value, and got rid of all the orange in the background with sky blue.  Oh, what a relief it is! ( I am singing this part!) LOL!

11"H x 14"W Original Oil on Stretched Canvas

Gloria J Zucaro's "Step Four & Palette Knife Landscape"

This week for Paint Party Friday, I have two paintings to show you for the week.  I also did two ink drawings for the Diva Challenge which I posted on Monday night.  Below is my final painting done in Ann Feldman's Contemporary Impressionism class.  We all used only a palette knife and a photograph she had of the scene.  The main lesson was blocking in the three values, Dark, Mid and Light first thing.  But even as we did that we used lots of different colors in the correct value, as you can see if you click on the image to enlarge.

10"H x 8"W on Oil on GessoBord

$75.00 starting bid on Daily Paintworks

Next is an update on my galaxy painting.  This week I took out Saturn which was not in a good area.  Then I used all my dark colors of blues, alizarin, and veridian to make a more interesting sky/outer space in the background.  I also started mixing various grays to block in my paper clips, Christmas tree hooks, and washers.  Next I will finish painting my sculpture, add more planets in the background, and do the foreground.  Click to enlarge.

24"H x 18"W Oil on Stretched Canvas.  Happy Paint Party Friday!

Check all the other artists who have contributed their time this week.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Lady Prizefighter "

Okay, you may laugh, now!  Or are you horrified?!  :)

The painting below was done in my last portrait class with Ann Feldman...and although I did it in fun, Ann was not pleased!  The story...Ann gave us three sheets of reference photos that had eyes, noses, and mouths, all done by Sargent, or Manet.  We were to practice one of each, then move on to trying a couple others in each category.  Well, I had done my eyes at the end of last weeks class.  So I tinted the bottom 2/3rds of the canvas sheet with a peachy color.  But then instead of painting a nose separately on the middle area under the eyes, I thought it would be fun to attach the other persons(male nose, facing a different way) to my beautiful eyes!  Ann was not amused(at first!).  She said "Gloria, what have you done!, I can't stand to look at it!"  Well, I continued on my merry way with the mouth, too.  But then even I couldn't  look at it.  The eyes previously painted were too small for the big nose and mouth, and too close together.  So I changed the eyes somewhat.  I added an outline of the face(which didn't help!)  At the right bottom is the beginning effort of a mouth by Manet.  I will show you my reference "parts" so you can see what they should have looked like individually.

Happy Halloween!

    

Gloria J Zucaro's "After Harley Brown"

This is my painting done in portrait class with Ann Feldman.  This is oil on a canvas sheet that is 16" square.  It is painted from a photo of a painting done by renown artist Harley Brown.  The link is to a site that shows one of his recent publications of a painting done in pastel of another little Indian  girl.

I have not finished the background, and may also need to make some little value changes around her mouth, but I am pretty happy with this exercise.  I am posting this for Paint Party Friday.  Have a good week everyone, and take the time to visit other artists' sites.  For yourself, do more art!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Autumn" and "Manet"

Here is the final version of our third portrait class with Ann Feldman.  After last week's drawing and adding shadows with charcoal, we had sprayed our portraits with fixative.  This week we used burnt umber to cover the entire surface with a wash, then wiped out the lighter areas of the face and neck that were not in shadow with a paper towel or small brush around the nose and eyes.  We then put in all the darker areas with our burnt umber.  I think it is a really neat technique.  
I thought you might like to see the front courtyard of my townhouse.(Three pictures)  I love this time of year, Autumn, when the trees are falling asleep, leaves blowing in the wind, and all the beautiful grasses are turning golden, too. All photos may be enlarged for better detail by clicking on the image.  In case I don't finish another painting today, this post will be my entry to Paint Party Friday.  Be sure to visit!

My Front Entry Courtyard

 The Front Door Area

My Asian Fountain.  It is turned off now and will have the pump removed on Saturday.