Gloria J Zucaro's "Some Catching Up"

I have been tending to other life matters aside from my art, so haven't posted in a couple of weeks or visited other's blogs either.  I had a little time today so thought I would show you some tangles and swap gifts received from other artists and some collage done a couple of weeks ago.

I did this drawing in February on a greeting card.

This was done about two weeks ago 

This Card was drawn yesterday.  

All of these cards were drawn from prompts suggested by Laura Harms at http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/  The one above uses two different but similar patterns called Flux Maria and Flux Rick.  Maria and Rick are the originators of the Zentangle  craze.

I was intrigued by this shadow all away across my yard and driveway in front of the house this morning.  It first came to my attention when two Robins were hopping along and then for some reason began to fight!  I guess they are territorial!  Notice how different the shadow shape is from the actual tree shape.  It (the shadow)makes the tree base much thinner and the limbs closest to me much larger.

This is a wonderful March Swap I received from Lisa Crail all the way from Australia.  She not only sent me these two paintings done with some collaged papers in back of the portrait but the painted and charcoal drawing of a bird, and a decorated envelope and small ink drawing of a figure.  See Lisa's Facebook page at, Lisa Crail-Painting From the Heart. These swaps were through Community Thrive.

Many of you may have seen my collage work on Facebook.  I really enjoyed a workshop led by Karen Sako a couple of weekends ago.  

We got 4 pieces accomplished.

They are below with a little explanation of the process.

Three birds from the same reference, different size and shape of paper. Then a house/landscape collage from a reference. All from Karen Sako's most fun Mixed Media Workshop. 

Number three Bird-just let loose! Different shape and feather arrangement!

Bird #2- stencils,ink,clear gesso, collaged paper, paint and pastel. — at Mainstreet Art Center, Lake Zurich, IL.

Number one Bird. More Traditional, drawing,stencil,paper prepared from magazine page, clear gesso, paint, pastel.

Hopperesque! Paper handmade sky, paper house, paper shadow on house, paper foreground. Painted smaller shadows and sheets on the line. Marker outlines, and dog.

Well, that's it, Folks!

I am posting today, early for Paint Party Friday, and somewhat late for I Am The Diva!

Have a Good Week,

Gloria

Gloria J. Zucaro's "Wonderful Swap From Carmen Jones"

Today I would like to show you the wonderful hand painted greeting cards I received from my February Swap Partner from Community Thrive. Carmen Jones lives in Bermuda and really outdid herself making these gorgeous cards! 

Carmen's theme choice was "Bold" and using a brayer and stencils then over-painting figures or adding 3-dimensional flowers onto the stenciled backgrounds. So well done! Thank you Carmen, I love them.

During this last week I did some small changes to a pastel I had done earlier. I changed the rather larger leaf that was in front of the apples and added more variation of color to the leaves and apples.

I am happier with it now, but not sure if it is done.

I am linking this to Community Thrive and Paint Party Friday

Gloria J Zucaro's "Square Bird" and "Be Brave, Forge Ahead".

I recently returned from a visit with my Mother in San Antonio.  While I was there I was helping her with projects, so had little time for art.  But I did this personal birthday card for my grandson Chris.  He will be graduating from high school soon and these are places where I think he

will go in his"exploring life" years.

When I got home, I had some back problems, but was able to do a little artwork for Community Thrive.  I had the February Art Challenge using squares to do.  Here is the process for my Square Bird.

The finished project below, done with gelli printed papers, matte medium, and acrylic paint.

"Square Bird"

The second project was to make an Art Swap postcard for my swap partner in Bermuda.

The Swap Challenge theme was the word "Brave".  I chose "braving the storm" as my inspiration.

The process below...

Finished card below, and then the back of the card also covered with collage paper.

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, Facebook, Twitter and Community Thrive.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Intuitive Painting"

Well, I wouldn't call this a success, but at least it is a start.  I am trying to learn about intuitive painting.  I have seen beautiful work by many artists who "see shapes" and and are able to bring them out of a background in such a way, it looks mystical. 

My process was to layer some warm acrylic colors and spray them with water to get them to mix.  After that layer dried, I added some blues, greens and purples and sprayed those.  I didn't like that layer at all so immediately sprayed some red, yellow and orange ink on top to warm it up again.  When that dried I searched for the "shapes".  I came up with some very cliche shapes!  A puppy, bunny, bird, angel, butterfly and what I call a "Hippo Bird"   He is probably the most interesting!  I traced them in with a pencil, then painted and decorated them.  I added "Try Something New" in glitter alphabet letters, and "Be Brave"

 in black pencil.  I added a little white pen around a few things.  It was an "experience"!  Oh well, maybe next time!

The final painting in all it's glory below!!

I am linking to Community Thrive and Paint Party Friday.