Gloria J Zucaro's "Amanda Day 2014"

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter or Passover celebration with family and friends. Here is our Easter table before the celebration began.  Linking with Paint Party Friday.

Zentangle for Earth Day.

 

This week "The Diva" reminded us that it is once again time for our Earth Day tangle. I have used several Zentangle designs to show the earth's diversity. 

Have a wonderful week and don't forget to visit the other artist's sites for a full array of tangled creations.  And all the wonderful artwork at Paint Party Friday.

4" Square 

Ink on Watercolor card-stock.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Many Thanks"

A strange thing happened.  I went on my trip and really enjoyed the respite from all the online challenges I had been doing for over a year.  When I returned in early April, I found that when I started looking at the challenges again each week, I felt a strong resistance to doing them.  True, I have had family and other life issues lately,but definitely my first real artist block.  So I am starting back slowly with odds and ends of projects.  Here is a small 6 x 6 cotton canvas panel I learned how to texturize last weekend.  First we added a very thick almost paste-like matte medium and then while it was wet we layered papers, eyelet lace, bottle caps, corrugated cardboard, torn paper pieces, buttons, pieces of different artificial flowers and string.  They were all coated with the medium as well.  We used a heat gun to dry the surface.  Then we completely covered the entire surface of each piece with white gesso.  Dried it, then sprayed the surface with two colors of spray inks.  After that was dry, we dry-brushed on black acrylic and highlighted the edges of things with the gesso.  We did that two-step process a couple of times until we were satisfied with the depth it created.  Then we glued on the rhinestones.  It was fun and easy and could be applied to larger art pieces.  The class was held at Stamp, Scrap 'N More in Mundelein,Il.

Then I was really pleased to get a wonderful journal as a gift from Judy Shea who is a wonderful multimedia artist at http://thekeytomyart.wordpress.com.  My name was a random pick from her comment list.  Here is the gorgeous journal.  I love the gilded edges and all the beads and colors.  Oh, and Judy also makes her own button shapes and other pieces to add to your journal pages and covers.  She sent those along as an extra special surprise.

Thank you so much, Judy!  I am a happy camper!

Next, a big "Thank You" to my daughter for the time she spent before Easter to buy these kits from Ebay and for putting them all together for my Easter hostess/Moms gift.  They are so beautiful!  When my children were young, we would go to a craft store in East Dundee, Illinois called Lee Ward's to buy these kits to make holiday ornaments together.  So these hold great memories, too.  I still have them on my mantel.  Thank you, Lucy! :>)

I am posting this to Paint Party Friday, as I have missed a whole month or more!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Race For The Eggs!"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil Painting on canvas panel

Sold

Well, I am finally home and well enough to paint!  I had a wonderful 10 day trip to the pacific     Northwest to visit an old friend in Anacortes,Washington for 3 days then drove down Whidbey Island to the town of Langley.  The Whidbey Island Fine Art School operated by Cary Jurrians was hosting a Dreama Tolle Perry workshop for 5 days.  I was intrigued by Dreama's use of transparent oils in her paintings and her wonderful writings and paintings in her blog posts, so just forced myself to take a trip out to see her in person! LOL!  Any excuse!  I am so glad that I did because Dreama is a wonderful instructor and a fun and giving person.  I met lots of other artists from across the USA, too, and we hope to keep in touch.  Cary was an absolutely wonderful hostess with fresh fruit, coffee and homemade baked goods every morning.  Faye Castle , the class monitor was such a help with any questions about supplies, restaurants, and putting out all the goodies every day. Cary and her husband hosted us for dinner on Sunday with the most wonderful homemade breads, choices of pasta, salad and fresh berry cobbler for dessert.  I stayed at a lovely B & B called Country Cottage of Langley operated by Tom and Jacki Stewart.   A beautiful waterview room with delicious breakfasts every morning.  They were eager to arrange meal times and anything else you might need.  The last night I was there I came down with  "stay up all night" stomach issues.  They were so kind and brought crackers and gingerale, ginger tea, ginger chews to try to ease my upset.  I slept later than checkout and they gave me help with the suitcases to the car and insisted I take a banana to see if I could keep that down a little later.  That trip home was not the best I have ever experienced!  But all is well!

Now for the painting above...This is the weekly challenge from the Daily Paintworks site.  The theme is anything Easter.  So here is a still life of one of my Easter decorations.