Gloria J Zucaro's "Portraits and Landscapes"

I hope you all had a wonderful Spring break.  The past two weeks I have taken workshops or done studies with two fine instructors.
I enjoyed and learned a lot from Margaret Dyer in her 3-day workshop "The Figure in Pastel".
Then a switch to doing quick 30-minute landscape studies with Frankie Johnson.
A couple of the paintings from each are below.  I am linking to Paint Party Friday, the site for seeing many artist's weekly creations.  Have a wonderful week.

Gloria j Zucaro's "Summer Sloth"

That is such a funny word!  I know it is one of the deadly sins in the Bible.  It is also the animal that moves so slowly you can hardly notice(except your eyes are glued onto his terribly threatening 4 inch toenails!).  But sometimes I feel like a sloth because I think I should do a particular task, and then I think, "Oh, I will do that later, I would rather..."  So I actually didn't even realize that 4 days had gone by since I last posted!  I have had decisions on moving, conversations about finances, open house visits to possible houses, doctors appointments, scheduling for carpet cleaning, electrical fixes and more pleasurably, visits with friends and family this last week.  But now I am here and ready to show you some of the fun and challenging projects we did at The Clearing.  

Our second painting that we started on Monday afternoon was an "Egg Painting using color references from Zhaoming Wu."  I am quoting Frankie's title on our synopsis of projects.  Frankie had made many reference photos of eggs nestled into fabric.  Some were on pedestals, some just surrounded on the fabric.    We were to use these only as a starting point, but to learn from this how to design/compose a painting by placing your egg in an area and leading the viewer to it.  We were also supposed to show how the colors surrounding the egg reflect onto it.  Use soft and hard edges and most important, too, use a color combination that we didn't ordinarily use or even disliked!  Here is my pastel painting of my egg.

8" Square Wallis Paper with Terry Ludwig Pastels.

I surprised myself with being more abstract than usual.  If you notice, no turquoise!

Tuesday morning was the beginning of a really fun project!  Frankie titled it "Paint an Ice Cream Sundae".  Frankie and her husband Jay decided to stop at Steak & Shake to do research(Yeah, I bet! lol)  Anyway after taking pictures at Steak & Shake for two days in a row of different ice cream concoctions that they paid for and ate, Frankie decided it was going to be too expensive and fattening to make 30 reference pictures.  So she went on-line and got copyright-free photos.          This was my choice to paint because, of course, I was attracted, not to the banana split, but to the background colors.  Well originally I tried to put in all the squares of color, but alas, it looked horrible!  So a very abstract background using those colors is shown below with my actual painting.  

8" x 10" Wallis Paper with Terry Ludwig Pastels.

It was so much fun that afternoon to see all the different ice cream treats created by 15 artists!

More tomorrow or the next slothless day!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Door County Trip"

On July 14, my friend Judy and I left for Ellison Bay in Door County Wisconsin.  We were going for a five-day workshop at The Clearing Folk School.  It is about a six hour drive from our area in Illinois, but the traffic was light, the weather was sunny and we arrived ahead of schedule. We checked in at the lodge to pick up our information packet with our name tags, room numbers and Clearing general info.  Some of our friends were already there, so all were greeted with big hugs and lots of enthusiasm.  Our first meeting of the whole group of 15 artists signed up for our workshop, the group of ten poets, and the group making marbleized papers and boxes was at supper at 6 PM in the lodge.
                   
There was also a gentleman there with his wife, (who was a painter).  He was doing "Individual Studies", which means he worked on his own without instruction.  
After dinner there was a slide show of the origin and history of The Clearing which was originally the summer home of Jens Jensen the landscape architect. Here is a quote from The Clearing website.

"The Clearing was founded in 1935 by Jens Jensen, a Danish-born landscape architect. Many consider him to be the most important American landscape architect and The Clearing his "great work."
Before founding The Clearing, Jensen achieved international recognition for designing many of Chicago's parks, along with the private estates of Armour, Florsheim, Henry and Edsel Ford and many other important Midwestern industrialists. " 

After the slide show all the guests sat in a large circle and introduced themselves, told where they were from and what workshop they were taking.  Judy and I were taking...

Oil Painting & Pastel: Creating Painterly Impressions From Your Photos Or From Life

Frankie Johnson

 We had all our classes in "The Schoolhouse" which actually has more the feel of a church.

Below is an interior picture of one of the cabins, although not ours.  But they are all similar with two beds, two desks/night tables, two closets & drawer sets, and a bathroom with a shower. The exterior view is of a cabin that now has a computer hook-up in the shed off to the side which is now enclosed. This is called Mertha's Cabin. She was the caretaker before and after Jensens' death. We were in cabin #8 and there is also a dormitory that has 5 beds, two bathrooms and an extra sink and mirror.  Each person has their own closet & drawers, too.  I had stayed there several times before rooming with Judy.

       

Some photos of some of the 128 acres.                                                                              

Here is the "class" photo from last year, this years' hasn't been put on the website yet.  This is when  Judy and I took Plein Air from Bonnie Paruch.  But a lot of the same people that attended Frankie's class this year are in this class also.  I am the blonde in red in the center back row right.

My friend Judy is the fourth person in from the right in the blue shirt.

          Tomorrow I will start posting some of my pastel paintings I did while at The Clearing.

                       

Gloria J Zucaro's "Doin' Somethin'"

Even though I am not posting as frequently, I have been doing some things.  Like more cards, enjoying my ATC cards that I got from other artists, doing thumbnails sketches in preparation for my 3-day Plein Air workshop with Frankie Johnson, and using scraps to make some very textural ATC cards.  I also took a couple of pictures of my work area.  Perhaps if I start linking to What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday, I will get more organized!  I am linking this to Paint Party Friday.  Be sure to visit and see what everyone has been up to.

After this week I will be gone to Albuquerque, NM for the IAPS(International Association of Pastel Societies). My fellow artist Dottie Carringi and I will fly into Albuquerque Tuesday the 4th, rent a car and drive up the Turquoise Trail to Santa Fe where we will spend the night. Then Wednesday we will take the "high road" up to Taos, spend the day and the night. Thursday we drive back to Albuquerque and start our round of 2 demos a day for 4 days at the convention.  And,of course, we will force ourselves to go to see all the new pastels and accessories offered by the vendors.  We are meeting up with two of our other artists friends from IL, too, so great fun and lots of new ideas and products.

One of the cards I made in a class to learn different ways to use my new Cricut machine.  I already gave the other card to my daughter as a "Thank You" for Mother's Day gifts.

Aleli, here is your card(finally)!

These are only a few of the wonderful cards received.  I would love to hear from anyone who received one of my 52.

This is all about learning to edit out all but the important aspects of what you see outside when doing Plein Air.  I was using three values and doing 2 to 3 sketches of the same scene(from my photos).  I realize outside it will be different, but I will have my View Finder, and still do my thumbnails before starting to paint.  One of the instructors I was working with laughed when I wrote "HELP!" under one of my sketches.  

Here I used Elmer's Glue-All to add scraps of torn papers over painted playing cards that had been glued to a map.  I will add more to these at a later date.

And finally my workspace(s)!

Gloria J Zucaro's "The New Mainstreet"

We moved into the new Mainstreet Art Centre this week after Frankie Johnson and her husband Jay spent months doing carpentry. They along with Dave Haley made new taborets, shelving for fabric and still life pieces, displays for paintings, 8 foot long tables on wheels for easy movement for workshops, storage for frames and palettes.  And of course, painting the walls.  And meanwhile, classes went on in our old location.  At night and on weekends, Frankie and some students and teachers and her family members would move things not directly essential to each class over to the new location.  As the full move-over got closer, she started with some kids classes, and the Wednesday evening watercolor class by having them start in the new building.  We are so thankful for all the hard work everyone did to give us this great new space.  We now have our wash sinks, refrigerator for cold drinks and palette storage, upstairs instead of in the basement.  We have two bathrooms and three classrooms.  So if you are in our area, come and join us for classes or workshops from excellent instructors locally and from around the USA!

Our front entry and chairs for having a cup of "Joe", tea, pop, or water.

 The coffee station and microwave.............>

 Still life props,  beginning student and charcoal area, fabric, easels, taborets............... and the table where we have lunch(and goodies!)
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                                                    Storage for our long sleeve, short sleeve and sweat shirts 

 Our wash sinks & storage

                                                                      Frame storage

 Art magazines for people who would like references on how the experts do it and photos of animals, birds, boats, people etc. for learning about drawing shapes.
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                                   Kid's Classroom 3..............>

 Storage in Classroom 3

                                                                 Back entry hall and aprons to borrow for keeping clean.

Susan Ploughe (Amazing instructor & Amazing Artist) conferring with a student before class. 











Monday morning student working on a pastel.

Our heroine, Kathy who runs the front desk, keeps the coffee pot going, plays music for us, frames our paintings, schedules classes, takes our money (cheerfully! :> ) and just does anything we need.  Kathy is also an expert palette knife painter and pastelist.

Classroom 2
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And saving the best for last, Frankie Johnson!

here is a link to her Fine Art             http://frankiejohnsonartstudio.com/works

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 "Classes & Studies"

This week for Paint Party Friday http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/ I am showing two different areas of study .  Above is an oil painting study of how to do buildings.  Our instructor was Frankie Johnson at Mainstreet Art Center in Lake Zurich, IL.  http://www.mainstreetartcenter.com  We used Frankie's photos for these studies.   

We first toned our background with a washy mix of blue and black acrylic because it dries quickly.

Next we decided on our size and placement of the basic flat front of the building on the left, an old farmhouse.  We measured the height and width, but were free to change them if it would fit our composition better.   

With as a few strokes as possible of our oil paints( size #8 flat), we placed the front of the building in but did not make an outline of the building first. 

Then the dark right edge of the roof line and the narrow roof showing behind it. 

The lower section under the roof on the shadowed side where the small porch extends was put in next in one value lighter than the roof color.  We did not leave room for the porch we just filled the whole area.

On to the bright sunlit roof out to the side, then the wall facing us, which again is another value lighter than the shadow side of the main front part of the structure.  A sliver of the view of the end of the wing of the house.  

Then the roof of the porch went in in a value darker than the face of the building because it is a little recessed, but lighter than the front facing side of the wing which is further back and shadowed by the main part of the building. 

Darken the inside of the covered porch, lighten a little the front of the porch as it extends back.  

Now warm up the face of the house with some yellow, red or orange mixed with white.  Add the windows with a smaller brush.  They can be done with one stroke, and each should be different, having a harder edge here and there, No outlining.

Next we worked on putting different values and colors of the greenery around the building to make it feel nestled.  Frankie emphasized that we should used different sizes and shapes of strokes as well. I think it came out really well!

I won't talk about the smaller building, because the process was basically the same.

My second part is from exercise done for my Dion Dior online watercolor class.

http://diondior.blogspot.com/

done through the Joggles website

http://www.joggles.com/

It is using triads.  I really had fun with it and might use these types of designs in my greeting cards.

Happy Paint Party Friday everyone.