Gloria J Zucaro's "Just A Few"

Today my oil painting is of a crocus and other small Spring flowers nearby.  Even though our weather is very chilly and gray and rainy, I see some of my tulip bulbs have started to emerge.  My painting is from a photograph by Lee Brown the host at A Day Not Wasted and is the challenge photo for April.  I am also submitting to the Daily Paintworks challenge of "Market Day" which is our interpretation of flowers, fruit, people and tents.  Carol Marine offered a photo from her visit to a San Francisco market.  I chose to concentrate on one flower grouping instead of a whole scene.  I am also linking to Paint Party Friday.  All of these sites have wonderful artwork, so take a look!

10"H x 8"W on Board

Auction at Daily Paintworks for one week.  $75. plus $10. S&H in US.  Other countries email me 

Yesterday I worked on my class lessons from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer about using deli wax paper in collage and art journals.  I drew small flowers and shrunk them even smaller on my printer to use inside of some umbrellas for my Artist Trading Cards this coming weekend.

Here I was testing all my supplies on the waxy side of the paper to see how they reacted on the slick surface.  I wrote the name of each pen or pencil, paint or stamp pad.  Below I repeated each mark on the dull side.  After I finished that, I used tape to run my wax paper through my printer, copying off small drawings  and altered famous paintings covered with sketches or stencils.  Click on photos to enlarge.

If you love all sorts of mixed mediums and journaling or fabric art, please visit Julie's site.  She has all sorts of on-line classes to pick from.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Enzo in Monotone"

8"H x 10"W Original Oil on Reused Canvas Board

Today I am showing my challenge entry for The Daily Paintworks.  The theme for this week is offered by Christine Parker and is called "The Monochromatic Challenge".  I painted my grandson Enzo from a photo that was taken a couple of years ago.  He is now almost 5 years old so his face has thinned out and he now looks more boyish rather than like a toddler.  When I mixed all my old piles of paint from last week, I came out with different values of blues. I used a board that I had previously painted on from a challenge last year.  See below.  In the photo above I notice some "red" showing on one cheek that does not show up in real life.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Coastal Light"

Today my oil painting is linked to "A Day Not Wasted" .   The March challenge from professional photographer Lee A Brown is a photograph he took while he and his wife were traveling along the Northern Coast of Ireland.  
I am also linking to The Hoffman Estates Art League.  The president of the League, Sharron Boxenbaum has challenged us to paint with a limited palette of red, blue, yellow and white for our March 6th meeting.  I picked Permanent Alizarin Crimson, Cad Yellow Light and Ultramarine Blue for this painting. 

10" Square Oil on Artist Quality Canvas Panel

$100.00 plus S&H

Click on image to enlarge.

My third link is to the Daily Paintworks challenge for the week of "The Bright Path Challenge".    We are to visualize that which inspires us.  I like the picture I chose for several reasons.  I love the coast with its' panoramic view, its' intense sunlight on the sides of the Church which seems symbolic, the bucolic view of the fields surrounding the old churchyard, the peacefulness of  the whole area.  These are things that feed my soul.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Just Out Of The Tub"

This is my weekly entry to the Daily Paintwork Challenge.  This week's challenge is "The Bathing Woman" posted by Carol Marine.  Believe it or not, I got the idea for my lady from an image I see in my slate tile on my bathroom floor!  I have seen her there ever since my bathroom was redone in 2008. I thought it was time to introduce her to you.  I added the tub behind her, but she looks very much like this in the relief edges in the floor tile....but not multicolored, of course!

8"H x 5 1/2"W on Cold Pressed 140 LB Watercolor Paper.

Ink & Watercolor.

For sale through Daily Paintworks

Gloria J Zucaro's "Lake Zurich Landmark"

Today I am posting my painting for the Daily Paintworks challenge by Linda McCoy.  We were to paint a landmark in our town.  Well, as it happens, Mainstreet Art Centre has been in business in the old downtown of Lake Zurich for 15 years and is a landmark to all of us who have painted there for many years.  It will be closing by the end of February.
The building it is in was was built in the early 1900's  and was once a meat market owned by the Hefner Family.  Since that time there have been many other businesses in the building. The town of Lake Zurich was once a summer resort area because of the one- half square mile lake that falls completely within it's borders, and offers boating, swimming, water skiing in the summer, and ice fishing and ice skating in the winter. In the 1950's many of the summer cottages started being converted to year round homes.  The current population is about 20,000 people.    

8" x 8" Square Original Oil on Canvas Panel

To our delight...thankfully, our favorite place to paint and meet our  artistic friends is reopening right next door in a larger and newly renovated space.  No more going down into the old stone basement to wash brushes, there are now two sinks upstairs, a separate room filled with frames, two extra classrooms, new lighting.  The front room has two large windows and is probably about 20 feet across and equally as deep.  
I can't wait for the opening celebration!  I am sure Frankie Johnson, the owner, and her husband Jay can't wait either, as they have personally built new taborets, shelving, 8 foot tables on wheels, racks for the frames, installed cabinets and put the lamination on the tops..really an heroic amount of work. 

Gloria J Zucaro's " Breakfast From The Pantry"

Today I am linking to Jennifer Maclean's  The Artists' Playroom, The Daily Paintworks and Paint Party Friday. 

The theme for the Artists' Playroom is to paint something from your pantry.  Several mornings a week I have a banana, some Wheat Thins and a tablespoon of peanut butter as my breakfast.  The peanut butter and crackers are in the pantry, the bananas are on the kitchen counter, does two-thirds pantry fare count?!  

On the Daily Paintworks Jo MacKenzie challenged us with picking one of our favorite Daily Paintworks artists and trying to paint in their style.  Jo picked Nora Macphail and so am I.  Nora's work is full of joy  and color.  But I will tell you, Nora is a very accomplished watercolorist!  After I did this sketch and watercolor, I realized how good she is!  Thanks, Jo and Nora for your inspiration. 

Paint Party Friday is always fun to visit.  Every Friday there is a featured artist and many more artists who sign in with their artwork from the past week.  So Happy Paint Party Friday!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Give it a Spin"

Today I am linking to the Daily Paintworks challenge "Make It Move" offered by Francesco Fontana.  I am also linking to Ria Hills January challenge  which is to do a piece of fruit in a still life, an apple was suggested.  I am combining both these challenges into a painting called "Spin the Apple"!  I also did a painting today for The Artist Playroom site hosted by Jennifer Mclean.  Her thought was to portray our weather wherever we live, well it is darned icy!   I combined two ideas again.  The movement from Daily Paintworks and the weather theme from The Artist's Playroom for "On Ice" below the apple.

"Spin the Apple"

8" x 8" Original Oil on Museum Quality Canvas Panel.

Click on images to enlarge.

To Purchase

"On Ice"

5"h x 7"W Oil on Museum Quality Canvas Panel.  I found this photo on Google and think it is probably Kristi Yamaguchi doing a move called the Sit-spin. 

To Purchase starting Jan. 16th

Gloria J Zucaro's "Still Wet"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Canvas panel

$35.00 starting bid on Daily Paintworks Auction site.

This weeks Daily Paintworks Challenge is to paint your undies!  Well this is all I am willing to reveal! These are my favorite staying at home attire during cool/cold weather, and I wear the tops under many of my nicer sweaters and tops during the winter.  These are my North Face thermal underwear tops and bottoms.  So I thought I would put them up in the snowy mountains.  They are still wet after the strenuous climb!

Gloria J Zucaro's "River Birch & Roses"/Sankegg/Portrait

"River Birch & Roses"

This is my entry for Jenn's challenge at The Artist's Playroom of painting something "Botanical".  I am not sure it qualifies, but two weeks ago we were to do our view outside   This is from my deck which has Roses and River Birch.

"Birch" is also the prompt from the Daily Paintworks.
Below that is my second week of  portraits with Ann Feldman.  This is in it's first stage and is from a painting by Manet.  Next we will do a tonal painting on top of this in oil or pastel.
And not to forget Paint Party Friday!  Which I did yesterday morning as I ran for the train!  So here I am a day late.  I hope to get around to more artist's sites this weekend.

Second Class in portraits, mine from painting by Manet

Gloria J Zucaro's "Quit Yolkin' Around"

8.5"H x 10"W  Original Soft Pastel on Acid Free Archival Sanded Paper.

$65.00  Shipping $8.00 USA

Click on image for more detailed view

Auction

The is my painting in response to Carol Marines' "The Broken Egg Challenge" on 

the Daily Paintworks.  Since I just got back from a pastel workshop with Bonnie Paruch at The Clearing Folk Art School  in Door County, Wisconsin and still had all my pastels within easy reach, I thought I would use them, instead of my oils.  I love my new appetizer plates so chose a color that I thought would go well with the colors of an egg.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Norwegian Sunshine"

8"H x 10"W Original Oil on Board

Click to Enlarge For More Detail

This will be in the Daily Paintworks Auction

$65.00 / $10.00 shipping

This painting was done from a photograph I took from a tourist bus while traveling through Norway with my Mom.  We had gone on a cruise through the Fjords and this was one of our land excursions.  This is my entry into the Daily Paintworks theme for the week of "Street views".  I really had fun with the colors and brushstrokes keeping it somewhat abstract.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Peaches & Cream"

Original Oil on Linen sheet.  Frameable area 6 1/2 inches square

$35.00  $7.00 S&H

This is my entry for the Daily Paintworks challenge of the week of painting roses. http://dailypaintworks.com/Challenges  There are lots of beautiful roses to see from this challenge!  

As you probably have guessed, one of my favorite colors is tangerine.  I especially love those roses that start out with a rosy bud and then turn a beautiful apricot color when mature.  This is also my entry for Paint Party Friday, since I am having company tomorrow and won't have time to post again then.  http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/  Happy PPF and have a nice weekend everyone.  I can't believe it is almost time for the kids to go back to school!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Thailand Lunch Cart"

Original Oil on 8"H x 8"W Raymar canvas panel.

SOLD

     

This painting is for the country of the month of July on the "Virtual Paintout" site  http://virtualpaintout.blogspot.com/  hosted by Bill Guffey.  We traveled to Thailand this month.  I "walked" around Bangkok and found this scene with a lunch cart.  

This is also the DPW Challenge http://dailypaintworks.com/Challenges  by Eileen McCoy for this week, which is to paint only in Red, Blue, &Yellow, the primary colors on a color wheel.  I used Ultramarine Blue, Cad Red Medium, and Cad Yellow Medium plus white.  This was very good practice because of the limited palette.  I tried to do this in a very impressionistic way with  a suggestion of things but really no detail.  

Gloria J Zucaro's "Treeline"

Original Pastel Painting on La Carte sanded paper

9"H x 12"L

Click on the painting to enlarge for detail.

$75.00/$10.00 S&H

This is my entry into this weeks DPW Challenge, "The Phone Photo Challenge". This is only the top right corner of the reference taken by Elaine Stolt.  We were to crop, change colors and just have fun with it.  So I did!   I tried cropping in several areas and finally decided on the upper right corner. When it enlarged, I could see that the strokes in the filter I used showed the land going in one direction and the strokes for the water going in the other direction. So I decided to do my pastel strokes that way. 

Gloria J Zucaro's "Romalea Microptera"

8"H x 10"L  Original Pastel on La Carte pastel paper.

$85.00 Framed w/Glass in plain black wooden frame .  Ready to hang
12.00 S&H

I am very late in entering my insect challenge into this weeks Daily Paintworks Challenge.

I chose this black grasshopper because when I was a kid and went to visit my father's parents' farm in rural Georgia, one of my favorite pastimes was to watch and catch these huge 2" long grasshoppers.  When they crewed the grasses, the liquid that came out of their mouths was reddish brown as if they were chewing tobacco.  Also Happy Paint Party Friday!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Slightly-Off White House"

5"H x 7"W Original Pastel on pastel board

$65.00 unframed/$10.00 S&H

Framing Options, see tab above

This week, Carol Marine threw a curve ball!  Her prompt is to go to the link for interior rooms of the White House and pick a scene using any angle of the room you wish. Well, the phrase about using "any angle" is what intrigued me.  So I walked through the lovely, historical but very impersonal and cold,in feeling,rooms that are open to the public. I finally found a room with some colors I love,greens,rose and blue. I picked that room but couldn't decide how to paint it until I went at an odd angle. It included the rosy arm chair, the flower arrangement, a lamp with the light on and a carpet.  No political comment intended.  That's it!  I am way late for Paint Party Friday this week!  A lot of "stuff" going on today since 5AM!  All week for that matter!  I hope you all have a good weekend and check all the artists websites to see what they accomplished this week. Happy PPF!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Looking from the Hilltop, Langley on Whidbey Island"

2.5"H x 3.5"W Original Ink Drawing with Watercolor pencil

For auction on DPW starting at $1.00 plus S&H.

SOLD

Today's post is my entry for this weeks Daily Paintworks challenge which is to do a mini-painting the size of an Artist Trading Card, which is 2.5"H x 3.5"W.  The challenge prompt was given by David Lloyd.   I have used an official Zentangle ATC but will use it as an ACEO..  I drew the design in fine line permanent marker, then used my Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencils to color the design, then my white Micron at the end.  In a couple of spots my water and sky got too much water, so when they dried I had to borrow a couple of my friend Judy's pastels to get the colors back to what I wanted.  I was using a "NIJI" small waterbrush, but maybe I overfilled it because too much water was coming out.  I used my #12 flat shader to do most of the wet brush technique over the pencil.  The photo I used for inspiration is from my March trip to Whidbey Island in the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington state.  Parts of the town of Langley have steep hills.  But they are great for picture taking.  The mountains across the waters of Saratoga Passage are the Cascades and Mt. Baker.  In my photo there are many telephone wires which I eliminated from my painting.

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!