Gloria J Zucaro's "Winter Field at Sunset"

Tonight I worked on this pastel for Jenn's The Artists Playroom prompt of a "Sunset" theme.  A couple of weeks ago I painted my "Evening in Door County", but then I found this reference in my photo library.  I love to go for drives in the country in the late afternoon when the sun is starting to set.  I have a friend who lives about an hour away and sometimes I drive out through the cornfields to see her.  I always take my camera to get pictures of the countryside and the old barns that are fast disappearing.   It is so calming to get out of the traffic and built up areas.  Sometimes I just park my car on the edge of the road and roll down the window and sit and listen to the crows or other birds, an occasional bark of a dog, or the braying of a cow as the sun is sinking and twilight comes.  It feels primal to me and helps me realize the things I really value.

11"H x 16"W on Canson Mi-Tientes Pastel Paper.

Please buy a painting if at all inclined from the Daily Paintworks Auction Site to help hurricane victims   100% of the money will go to them, as all the artists involved have donated their paintings.  

And don't forget to stop by The Artists' Playroom to see all the creative entries!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Noel" SOCC Challenge

This week our I Am the Diva Challenge from Laura is to use the tangle called "SOCC" originated by Erin Olson.  I used it to make some holiday flowers on a greeting card.  The design is in ink with watercolor, Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils and Gel pens.

Go to the Diva's site to see the other creative designs using SOCC.

7"H x 5"W

$6.00 starting bid on The Daily Paintworks auction.

Comes with envelope or may be framed.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Getting My Stripes"

Original Ink Design on 7"H x 5"W Watercolor Paper Greeting Cardstock

Comes with Envelope.  May be framed in 7"H x 5"W frame.

$6.00 starting bid on Daily Paintworks Auction.

Click on image to enlarge.

This is my entry into this week's Diva challenge.  It is using stripes as your string.  This was really fun to create, decide on how to arrange the stripes, and how to use all the different patterns to fill the stripes.  This involved several hours on several days this week!  I really got into trying some new patterns. Now I am going over to the Diva site to see what all my tangling friends have been up to this week.  Won't you join me!?

Gloria J Zucaro's "Rainbow Pear"

7"H x 5"W Oil on Canvas Sheet

Click to enlarge for more detail

$35.00 On Daily Paintworks Auction

Enjoying learning about Contemporary as opposed to Traditional  Impressionism in Ann Feldman's  class.  This is really fun to do! 

Gloria J Zucaro's "Quoth The Raven"

8"H x 10"W Original oil on board.

purchase through Daily Paintworks Auction

Bids starting at $65.00

This week Carol Marine gave us the "Birdbrain Challenge".  Her bird is a gull.  But since I did a gull for Ria Hill's "Shoot and Paint" challenge earlier this year, and Carol said we could paint hers or any other bird of our choosing, I chose this raven.  I think it is great for this time of year, with Halloween coming up.  I used an already textured board.  Frequently I use the leftover paint on my palette to pre-treat another board for future use. This board was completely dry.  It had some oranges and other colors on it, but I wanted it toned completely red-orange so went over it with Cad Red Medium before starting this painting  I know some people think ravens/crows are spooky or evil, but I love them.  I feel they are somehow primal and they have always attracted my interest.  I feel the same way about geese as they fly South on a cloudy and chilly Fall day.  It gives me the shivers and I too have a longing to fly!

I am also posting this for Paint Party Friday.  Please check both sites to see what other artists have been doing this past week.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Swiss Cream"

8"H x 10"W Oil on board

Click on image for more detail.

$65.00 starting bid on Daily Paintworks auction.

http://dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/72372

This cow, which was so much fun to paint is my entry for the A Day Not Wasted hosted by Lee Brown, a fabulous photographer in Monument, Colorado.  Every month, Lee posts one of his photographs for artists to paint or draw in their own style.  This months' entry is the Swiss Alps with this wonderful cow portrait!  You may still submit an entry until September 15th.  Don't you feel like you are Maria Von Trapp when you look at this view?  I loved when Maria sang "The Sound of Music" on the mountain top.  I am also entering this painting for the Paint Party Friday site.  Go see all my artist friends there, who share the art they have been working on for the past week.

Gloria J Zucaro's " Smile for The Camera"

Original Oil on Raymar Panel

6"H x 6"W

$35.00  $7.00 Shipping

Hello!  Here is my Daily Paintworks "The Old Truck Challenge" painting posted for this week by Carol Marine.

I chose to crop it down to my favorite parts of Carol's photo.  I really like the front of the truck, the sunshine and shadow on the driveway and the windshield wiper blade.  The Disney look of this truck was my aim for the painting, as I am sure it must have been a model for one of the trucks in "Cars the Movie".

Gloria J Zucaro's "Good Will Towards All"

7"H x 5"W Original Ink Drawing with Acrylic Silks Glaze

$6.00 starting bid on Daily Paintworks auction site.

Click on image to enlarge.

This is my entry into Jenn's challenge this week at The Artist Playroom.  We were to use the word "Galaxy" for our prompt.  I thought I would do a design for a Christmas card.  The Star that the shepherds followed, the triangular pieces of the church foundation, the triangular tree, to me symbolize our higher power, God, and the Trinity.  The stars reaching out to all mankind.  The painting is on greeting card watercolor paper and comes with an envelope.  Inside are the words "Good  Will Towards All".  I wanted to emphasize each of the words "Good" and "Will".  See below.  I attached the wording with matte medium and a wash and then spritzed it with some very 

fine glitter mist.  I put a little black edge around both photos in Elements, so that the white cardstock would show up better against the blog page.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Worry Bird"

3.5" Square Original Design In Watercolor and Ink

SOLD

The Daily Paintworks Challenge this week was offered by Jo Mackenzie with the prompt of "emotion".  I can definitely relate to the fact that however old your children are, you never cease to worry about them, right from the time of their cracking out of their shells and coming into this world!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Blind String Project"

3.5" Square Original Design on Official Zentangle Watercolor Paper Tile

$4.00 starting bid on Daily Paintworks auctions.

This is my entry into Laura's "Blind-Sighted" challenge. Laura is the host for the I am the Diva site that has a weekly challenge for Zentangling. The idea is to close your eyes and then draw your "string" or  lines around and across your drawing surface.  Then do your design work following these disorderly strings!  This was a lot of fun because I had extra little spaces that I ordinarily would not have had if I had planned my areas with eyes open. Laura just returned from a trip to Victoria BC.  She has lots of pictures so a great place to go sightseeing through her photos.  Also don't forget to see all the other blind string tangles that have been created by all the participating artists.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Color My World"

OOPS!  If looking for Diva Challenge check further down the linky list, I put the wrong link!

4"H x 6"L Greeting Card done with Luminarte's Silks and Twinkling H20s, 

which are both luminescent acrylics.

$4.00 starting bid on Daily Paintworks auction

http://dailypaintworks.com/buy/auction/73666

darker version- click to enlarge to see the glimmer!

Lighter Version

Although I am still very much "coldey" and have to go to the Doc in the A.M. because of fevers, I wanted to get something in to Jenn's Artist Playroom this week.  Jenn's prompt was paint something in your favorite color.  Well, picking one would be impossible!  I find I usually use an array of colors from the warm side of the color wheel and a few from the cooler side.  I tend not to like earth tones or very muted colors.  I am most happy with orange, yellows, roses, aqua, lime green, and emerald green. I also love sparkles!  I just got new paints listed above and they are a wonderful pigment filled with mica.  The originator of these fabulous paints is Leslie Ohnstad and the paints can be found here, LuminArte.  The picture doesn't do the card justice as far as the richness and sheen of the paint.  You can see it better in the darker version but the lighter version is more true to the brightness.

Gloria J Zucaro's "After The Spree"

3.5" Square Original Ink Design on Watercolor Paper.  Colored with Luminarte Silks and Twinkling H20's.   Click on image to enlarge for more detail.

$4.00 with $1.50 S&H

May be purchased through The Daily Paintworks auction site.

This drawing/painting is a prompt challenge from Jennifer Mclean over at Just Add Water Silly, The Artist's Playroom.  Our prompt is the word "Juicy".  I thought of several things I might want to paint.  A juicy hamburger, a person eating a fresh and ripe peach, Juicy Fruit Gum... But I finally decided on using my "juicy" and sparkling new paints.  It is a combination of my imagination and tangles.  Let's call the lady "Josephine"!  She has just returned from a long day of shopping and is dreaming of all the beautiful things she saw.  Some affordable and some not.  There were diamonds and pearls, hats and purses and roses, and trips to palaces far and wide.  The money was flying in all directions, she was on a  juicy and sparkling spree!  

Definitions..

spree/sprē/

Noun:

A spell or sustained period of unrestrained activity of a particular kind: "a shopping spree". A spell of unrestrained drinking....  (no drinking happening here except a small glass of juicy red wine at lunch with her girlfriend!)

Today I would definitely like you to visit Jenn's blog post Jenn's blog post about the wonderful new international art magazine called Featuring.  It is loaded with articles on journaling, altered books, Zentangling, Artist's studios and more.  If you pre-order your copy this month you may be chosen to win an inchie of space for your art on the back cover of the next issue.

This is also my entry for Paint Party Friday hosted by Kristen and Eva

Gloria J Zucaro's "Let's Go Bowling!"

Original Ink design with watercolor pencil

 5"H x 7"L watercolor cardstock greeting card w/envelope.

May be framed in 5x 7 or 8 x 10 frame with or without mat. 

See this in my Daily Paintworks Auction.

This is my entry in Jennifer Mclean's The Artist's Playroom.  http://www.justaddwatersilly.com/search/label/APR

Our prompt for the week is any type of series of objects/people/animals?!  I finally thought of these bowls that I have had for a few years now and they are still in perfect condition.  I love them because of their wonderful colors of blue, green, red, pink, orange and yellow. They are made of a very heavy plastic called Melamine.  This year they updated the colors, but I like these colors better. The large blue one can hold ten cups(plus) of freshly popped corn!  The tiny yellow one holds about a half cup of nuts or raisins, etc.

I used my Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils, a #3 Micron black ink pen and a white gel pen.

Get on over and see the rest of the series!