Water Ways in Oil

 Connecting to Paint Party Friday, FaceBook, Twitter, and Instagram.  Enjoy all the artist displaying their art this week on Paint Party Friday.

A sunny and warmer than we have had lately in Chicagoland.

This is an oil painting on a piece of canvas.  I did this while learning different water effects from Susan Ploughe.  I think I need a little more "umph" in the distant sky, but otherwise I like it.

Click on image to enlarge for detail.

Water Ways

Oil on canvas

8 x 10

Gloria J Zucaro's " Saturday Workshop with Laura-Lein Svencner".

This past Saturday an artist friend and I enjoyed a one-day workshop with Laura-lein Svencner and 8 other artists. Laura makes beautiful abstract collages that include handmade papers, thread, beads, and organic matter. But the focus for this workshop was abstract landscape collage.  It was so wonderfully organized!  All we brought was our lunch!  Laura had all the supplies for making our own papers and then designing our landscapes from them and heat-tacking them together on watercolor paper.

We each received a large zip-lock bag that held all the papers we would transform with paint, templates and polymer, each picking our own palette and two pieces of watercolor paper to attach our landscapes to. We had taped the edges so that when we removed the tape we had a wonderfully clean white mat effect.

Below are my two finished abstract landscape collages.

I am linking with Paint Party Friday.  Have a great week.~gloria

                    

                     Number One                          Number Two

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Farm at Old McHenry and Route 22"

This week I am so happy to have been chosen by the random generator to show examples of my art on Paint Party Friday, hosted by Kristin and Eva.  There are at least 60-80 artists every week exhibiting on this wonderful site.  You truly get to know your fellow contributors from around the world.

This week I will keep it short and simple!

I finished to my liking a scene from a photo taken from my car at an intersection- while stopped at the red light, of course!  I was attracted to the cluster of farm buildings and a typical Mid-Western farmhouse.  The painting went through extreme changes as I progressed.  I printed it in color and black and white.  I had done a thumbnail sketch of it in my class with Kim Casebeer and also used that as a guide.   The bottom sketch below is my thumbnail of this scene.

Then when deciding what colors to use, I leafed through a copy of National Geographic and found a page that appealed to me.  But even there my colors drifted into more of the blues and purples than the pale yellows and violets. This is the end result.  Titled "The Farm at Old McHenry and Route 22".

10"H x 20"W. Oil on gallery wrapped canvas.

Thank you for visiting and for leaving your comments.

And thank you again, Kristin and Eva for giving me this opportunity!

Happy PPF, everyone!

Gloria

Gloria j Zucaro's "Sun and Sky"

This week I have another pastel to share.  It is called "Sun  and Sky" and was painted from a photograph I took during a drive out near Harvard,IL.  I saw this scene out my car window and stopped to take a picture.  I love the reflections of the trees in the cloudy water and then the blue, blue sky reflection.

Below is a Fall street in the town of Palatine, IL

And one from my back yard

If you love art of all types please look at the website below where I am posting today.  

It is hosted by Kristin & Eva, thank you, Ladies! 

I am linking this post to Paint Party Friday

Gloria j Zucaro's "Pictures & Shows"

This week I am pleased to report that my paintings were a success at The 32nd Annual Art Centre 2015 Juried Show.
I got two ribbons with awards!  Yippee!

"Blue Violet" got a Purchase Award

"Storm Brewing" got An Award of Excellence.

Below are two of my paintings from my Richard McKinley workshop.  I posted about the process for doing these pastel paintings last week.

"C" is for Apple

"Peabody Estate Library"

Have a great week and visit the Paint Party Friday website for great art of all types.  That is where I am posting tonight.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Storm Brewing"

Wow!  I can't believe how long I have been out of the loop!  Well, I have enjoyed some gardening, some travel, some movies and restaurants.  But I have been painting ,too.  

This painting came out exactly as I envisioned it, so I am very happy with it. It is from a reference photo I took out West.
I am not sure whether it is in Arizona or New Mexico.  I love both the areas around Tucson and Taos.  I also posted a pastel I did of a woman at the Taos Adobe on my FaceBook page today.
Have a wonderful week.

"Storm Brewing"

Pastel 9" x 12"

This will be posted to Paint Party Friday which showcases about 100 artists and their weekly projects.  Stop by and enjoy some really creative work.

For purchase information, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com

Gloria J Zucaro's "Starts"

Today I have two ZIA's for Laura's prompt of "only straight lines", in our tangles this week.  It was fun, like a limited palette in painting.  I will barely slip under the wire for posting them on her site.  It closes at noon on Saturdays.  Please enjoy the Diva's website and see a very creative group of tanglers!  I am also posting to Paint Party Friday, a huge amount of creative people there, also!

This first one I started in the center of the square, and as you can see, I didn't have it centered, or square!  But it was fun to watch it grow outward from there, even if it was very wonky!  Shown with its' reflection.

This second one is representing a quilt.  I drew it and put in all the stitches and cross-stitches and then ended up using colored Signo pens which obliterated many lines.  But I hope you get the idea!

My third project is the first block-in of an oil painting.  It is a landscape of a photo taken in Door County Wisconsin.  It actually has a cow in the foreground in the photo but I just wanted to do a landscape, so left the cow out.  I hope to finish this painting after my trip.  This is 8"x 10" on gallery wrapped 3/4 inch canvas.

Lastly I am sending a small birthday box to my sister-in-law.  It is a Crate & Barrel box that I painted with black acrylic and decorated with white acrylic.  I will put her card on the top for the address.

Have a good week!

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Palette Knife & The Weather"

I loved a palette knife floral that Ann Feldman did a couple of months ago and asked her when she would be teaching another class for palette knife. She didn't have any until Spring she said, but would do a special one if I could get enough people.  So I rounded up artist friends and all nine of us had a great day with Ann. 

Ann did a landscape demo first thing in the morning and gave us a photo as a reference for our painting after the demo.

This week I touched up my two oil paintings I had done with Ann in her workshop.

Below is my landscape using the reference.  We drew a rough outline in paint with a small brush first, then started our painting with the palette knife.

10" x 8" on canvas sheet.

After lunch, Ann and I set-up three still life florals for the artists to choose from.  I had brought all the vases and flowers to use for the still life.  Ann did another demo and then we started painting our own florals from whichever set-up we chose.

My choice to paint.

10" x 8" on Canvas sheet.

As far as the weather...considering the dilemma in Buffalo, New York we are extremely lucky in Chicago.  Here are a couple of photos of our first little dusting of snow.  One at night when it was first falling, and one the nest day from my kitchen window.

The back yard (click on photo to see more clearly)

And finally here is my new fish tank on the chalk painted(and loaded with three coats of hand-applied wax!)table.

Real plants and two fish.  A Fancy-Tail Goldfish and a small Koi.

Did you know you should only put one inch of fish for each gallon of water?  So I have about 6" of fish in a ten gallon tank.  In a year I will need a 20 gallon tank!

I am linking this post to Paint Party Friday, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.Pinterest

Gloria J Zucaro's "Collage on Three"

This week flew by again.  I spent my time planting perennials for next year, and watching the birds and small mammals in my yard.  A very relaxing week.

I wanted to show you some of the collage pieces done in Karen Sako's collage class.  We used Masonite boards covered with gesso, either regular white or clear.  Other supplies were magazine pages, sandpaper, baby wipes, saran wrap, crackle paste, gesso with sand added, pastels, India ink and my favorite, strips of paper applied with gel medium, and then sealed.

The Beginnings

Gesso with impressed sand, torn paper, acrylic paint, sealer

Gesso, crackle paste,torn paper, gel medium, acrylic paint, sealer.

Gesso, saran, gesso with sand, tool to add lines, acrylic paint, sealer

I am posting this to Paint Party Friday, Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.

Have a wonderful week.

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Demented Candy Corn from Tracy Delisle and Sun Filled "

I am sorry I took so long to get my "Thank You" to Tracy Delisle  out for this incredible "Demented Candy Corn" piece of art by Tracy.  I have it on my mantel in the family room and just love it.  Tracy is known for her very original pieces of three-D art.

"Demented Candy Corn"

This past week I finished a pastel I was working on.  I am trying to decide on a title I like.

This painting is 9" x 12" on La Carte sanded Pastel Paper.

Contact me if interested in purchase.  May be enlarged by clicking on picture.  Thank you for taking a look.   

                    Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's " Doing the Marla"

Today I am sharing with you my first three landscapes in a series that I am calling "The Marla".  The reason for the name is the demo I went to at the International Association of Pastel Societies (IAPS) in Albuquerque a couple of weeks ago.  One of the six demos I attended was by Marla Baggetta who talked about her 100 Variations.  Over a six month period she completed 125 color variations of the same composition.  She used them as a warm-up exercise at the beginning of her day.  She then would go on to do her other studio work.  She said when she finished her hundredth painting she felt a loss, as they were very meditative for her.  So she has actually continued to do more now and then and has done almost 300 by now.  Most of them were in pastel.   She demonstrated two during our demo. They only took her about 15 minutes from start to finish!  Well, I decided I would like to try doing my own series, with no expectations except to do it.  In my first one, the reference picture I chose was too complicated.  So it changed by the second one.  Then today when I did it again, it also changed.  I am hoping to find my favorite one, or may choose a totally different picture.  Here are the three I have done so far.  As you can see in the first one I was quite stiff and traditional.  The second one is a little more fun, and today I was really getting into it.

               Pastel.  It is 11 by 8 because I tore a piece of Canson Mi-Teintes paper in half.

Pastel.  This one I cut down to 10 x 8

This one I measured out the 10 x 8 but left plenty around the edges for a mat.

Which one do you like better?

I am posting this to Paint Party Friday, boy, I have been away a long time!  Check out their site, lots of interesting artwork there.

Gloria J Zucaro's " Some Plein Air"

I have stepped back a little from my daily art and my blog because of shoulder and neck pain that gets worse when working at the computer.  I am now going for acupuncture in hopes of relief.  I had x-rays a couple of months ago and some physical therapy for arthritis in my neck.  The x-rays  also showed a complete loss of all cartilage in my shoulders. So anyway, that is why I have not posted in quite a while. But today I am sharing some of my thumbnails and Plein air paintings done the first week in June. 

On the first day of our Plein Air workshop, I was still doing thumbnails. We were at Ginger Blossoms in Richmond Illinois. There is a main house and a large barn filled with ceramic tiles, furniture, rugs, paintings, tableware, etc. a silo, open fields, and about 6 other little buildings filled with unusual items from Mexico. Around the grounds there are many sculptures.

The front porch of the house.

The side of the ramp going up to the barn, grasses and part of the silo.

A statue, just taking it easy!

A shed and corner of the barn.

Another small building with a latticework entry, and shadows from the trees.

Trees and the aluminum roof shining on a small shed.  Grapevines in front.

A facsimile of a Greek building.

The second day was at an old farmstead on Route 22 not far from the Mainstreet Art Centre.  The wonderful white farmhouse, several out buildings and the main barn, as well as grassy fields and charming fencerows. I did my thumbnail and then my first actual painting. I need to make my large barn darker for more punch. The day was cloudy, so the barn was dark at first, but then the sun would peek out and confusion ensued!

"Two Barns on Route 22"

I did two paintings that day, my second is below.

"The Tree in the Far Field"

The last day we painted along the Fox River in the North Barrington area off Robert's Rd.

I chose an area along the path where you can look through the trees draping down and see a distant shore.  It was sooooo cold.  Cloudy, some wind and a damp 55 degrees!  Only one painting that day. We had a critique first thing in the morning from Frankie Johnson, our fearless leader!  Then off to the latrines, and finally picking a spot to paint. Lunch and then an early stop at 3PM.

"Along the Fox"

Thanks for looking, next I will talk about the convention in Albuquerque, NM.

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Sunshine for Julie"

This is my latest painting, which I am thrilled to say is going to a good home, with an artist and friend.  

I am posting this for the Paint Party Friday Challenge.  

Thank you Kristin and Eva for hosting.  

I hope you will visit their site to see what the accomplished artists have done this week.  

Click on image to enlarge.

12"H x 9"W Original Oil on Canvas Panel

SOLD

Gloria J. Zucaro's Abstracted "Caribbean Moonshine"

8"H x 8"W Original Oil on Raymar Panel

$75.00 Unframed/ $90. Framed in Plain Black Frame.

Unframed/Framed

Option 1-Unframed $75.00 USD Option 2-Framed $90.00 USD

 
Many of my "fair weather friends" have left for either Florida or Arizona and may be home for the holiday, but not for long!  So I won't really see them or play Farkel, Mexican Train or Mahjong again until the end of April.
One of my friends' and her husband had originally planned on retiring in the Caribbean, but eventually ended up on the West coast of Florida.  Not so expensive for the kids to come down.  I thought of the Caribbean when painting this abstracted tree.  It was done with a palette knife and brush with heavy texture application.  10% of the sale price will go to breast cancer research through the Club 47 a Kimberly Conrad project.

Gloria J Zucaro's 4Value Color Version"Island in the Clouds"

9"H x 11.75"W Original Oil on Board

$100.00 Unframed

  Here is my colorized version of my 4Value challenge for the Daily Paintworks site.
I painted it over the burnt sienna & white under-painting and let a little of the under-tone show through.  If you go to the DPW site, this painting will be in my gallery and you can see it with the zoom feature which will show the brushstrokes more clearly.

Gloria J Zucaro's Four Value Challenge "Island In The Clouds"

9"H x 11.75"W  Original Oil on Board

This is the Sept 10, 2011 weekly challenge from the Daily Paintworks site.  The project involves using 4 values to design your painting.  How to "Keep it simple".  Not as easy as it would seem!  Nonetheless, I enjoyed the challenge and realize how valuable it is to learn to decipher the different values in your 2D composition to make it as realistic as the original scene.  I used Burnt Sienna and white and plan to finish the painting in colors natural to the actual landscape.  This photo was taken in Busse Woods, near Schaumburg, Ill on the North side of Route 72.