Gloria J Zucaro's Superstition Challenge "Stormy Weather"

9 1/2"H x 11 1/2"W  Pastel on Sanded Paper

$75.00 Unframed  $100.00 Framed with Mat and Glass

$85.00 double matted with Plexi, no Frame

S&H to your ZIP.

This painting will be for auction on the Daily Paintworks website.

dailypaintworks.com. 

I actually finished this painting on Monday last, but then tried something new...spraying it with fixative.  I learned that it definitely darkened it, which can change the values somewhat.  I also learned that if you use charcoal as your black, it blurs out with the moisture.  So after completing all my work this week with painters, plumbers, and carpet cleaners for selling the townhouse, I finally worked on it again to fix values, add highlights and make the black cat a little less of a puddle!  So now I am posting it on The Daily Paintworks site as my entry into last Saturdays challenge which was superstitions.  This one is about never opening an umbrella in the house and black cats crossing under...things??.  I am not really superstitious, however, I am cautious about not stepping on a crack in the sidewalk and possibly breaking my mother's back!!!!  (Step on the crack, break your mother's back!).  I read that only 1 in 20 adults avoid cracks in the pavement...wow...I feel really special, LOL!

Shadow Stack

11 1/2"H x 9 1/2"W  Original Pastel on Sanded Paper.

$100.00 Unframed  $150.00 Framed with double mat, glass, frame.

$125 with Double Matt and Plexi , no frame.

S&H to your ZIP.

Unframed/Framed

Option 1-Unframed $100.00 Option 2-Complete framingg $150.00 Option 3-Mat,plexi $125.00

           This is a pastel I did  at The Clearing Folk Art School in Door County, WI in July in a workshop with Frankie Johnson..  The object was to place a fabric with design into the back and foregrounds and show how they changed both in perspective and color value.  We each set up our own still life arrangement with our choice of fabric.  Of course, I had to choose a fabric with aqua/turquoise!  These circular boxes came from Ikea and stack within themselves from about 8" diameter down to a one incher.  They are each a different jewel tone in color.  I like things a little off kilter and a large contrast between light and dark.

"Picnic" Round

12"X12" Original Plein Air Still Life on Pintura Round Canvas Board made in Italy.  Framed

$135.00, S&H to your ZIP  

This is a Plein Air still life done in the park across from the Mainstreet Art Centre studio where I regularly paint.   To purchase,email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com 

The Old Mill Challenge "Sunset & Twilight"

8"H x10"W Oil on Utrecht Canvas Board  This painting is available through the Daily Paintworks Auction site.  Bidding starts at $47.00 and 10% will be donated breast cancer research.  The "47" project is in response to a challenge by Kimberly Conrad from Contemporary Fine Art International.  All are welcome to join in the challenge. 

The challenge this week is presented by Jean Nelson.  I chose to do it in a triadic color scheme.  I first toned the canvas with cad red medium.  After it dried I proceeded with a triadic color scheme of cad orange, viridian, and manganese violet letting the toned background show through for a sunset feel to the painting....my favorite time of day with landscapes!

"Only 25 Points" The Balance Challenge

8.5"H x 9"W  Pastel on Sanded Paper

This painting is up for auction on the Daily Paintworks site.  Go to "All Artists" and look for my name alphabetically.  You can also find it under the Balance Challenge category.http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenge/28AF0AA5-636B-4840-9E08-F08BE8084FE5

This is my second entry into The Balance Challenge put up by Carol Marine at the Daily Paintworks site.  It took me longer than I thought to get it finished because of the detail.  Also this picture doesn't seem to show as much light and shadow as the actual painting.  I just got Photoshop elements, so adjusting to using it after using Adobe Photoshop since my first "buy" in 1992!   I learned to play Mahjong about 6 years ago.  I had bought a set on eBay because I loved the floral tiles.  The game had some blank tiles, so I ordered stickers for them to be the joker tiles.  I never learned to play until a friend bought into a retirement village in Florida,learned and came back in the Summer and taught a few of us how to play.

Tree Sculpture Series "Late Bloomer"

8"H x 10"W Original Oil on Board, 
SOLD

 I always think that bare trees look like sculptures.  This tree was in a lovely garden in Long Grove, IL.  Our group was doing Plein Air  and  I picked this tree as my subject matter because its' "body" was so beautiful.  Most everything else in the garden was in bloom, so I titled the painting "Late Bloomer".

Gloria J Zucaro's Collage Class

This past weekend I took part in a collage workshop at The Mainstreet Art Centre in Lake Zurich, IL.  It was taught by Laura Lein-Svencner.  What a fun but intense workshop!  I never realized how labor intensive collage can be!  

We spent the whole first day preparing our papers with staining, stenciling,crinkling, removing color with a metal polishing compound,gessoing, and polymer, polymer, polymer!  All our twenty papers or so had to be polymered on both sides, and transfers had 3 layers of polymer on one side only. So all day it was a constant stream of artists brushing on the polymer or gesso, and carefully carrying their papers one at a time to the back room to let them dry on newspapers that were stacked everywhere on tables and on the floor!

The second day Laura did a complete demo for about an hour and a half.  Then she gave us some small squares of watercolor paper and some of her sample papers(three very small pieces, about 2" x 3", and a couple of transfers.  We were to do practice runs with these three and tear or cut the papers, arrange them and tack them down with a special little heating iron.  Then more polymer, then shading around areas on our pieces to make them more dimensional, adding some pastel if we wished, spray with fixative, polymer, add transfers, tack, moisten the back of the transfer to remove the paper, quickly polymer to avoid a bloom, add beads or what-not....I am exhausted!  And most of you will say "what in the world is she talking about!"

ANYWAY...below are my first efforts with collage.  The first 3 are our practice squares, about 4" square, the fourth and fifth are using our own papers and "Found" objects.  I my, case the flowers and the sunbather that are mixed in with my papers.  These collages are larger.  One is 6" square, the other is 6" x 4".