Gloria J Zucaro's "Mission San Xavier del Bac"

I finally finished my Mission Church that my friend Judy G. and I went to visit a couple of times when we went to Tuscan for plein air painting workshops. The Mission is being cleaned and repaired so this is not the usual front view of San Xavier del Bac. We walked around the sides and back and got some gorgeous sunlight hitting the Mission. In my painting you can see some of the tarps on the left side.

 

Oil on Canvas  

11' x 14"

Here is my original block-in below.  

I left some of the warm under-painting peeking through.

Last Sunday I my daughter Lucy and I attended another collage workshop given by Karen Sako at the Mainstreet Art Center in Lake Zurich, IL.  I wasn't really "feeling it" that day for some reason, so my efforts came out with very dark and very light areas instead of a nice mix of values.  This time I did three landscapes from the same reference(believe it or not!) and one bird on a 6" square board.

This one reminds me of Disney!

Lots of layers of paper and pastel and paint and ink!  

But just too darn dark!

I like this one the best.  I like the colors and the stamping and tangling.

These next drawings are from a live model session at the Elk Grove Library with the Artist Association of Elk Grove Village.  They were 1, 2, 5, and 20 minute poses.  I notice that I got darker and darker!

Thanks for looking.  I am sharing this with Paint Party Friday, although I am two days late!  Have a good week,         

                                                                     Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Some Catching Up"

I have been tending to other life matters aside from my art, so haven't posted in a couple of weeks or visited other's blogs either.  I had a little time today so thought I would show you some tangles and swap gifts received from other artists and some collage done a couple of weeks ago.

I did this drawing in February on a greeting card.

This was done about two weeks ago 

This Card was drawn yesterday.  

All of these cards were drawn from prompts suggested by Laura Harms at http://iamthedivaczt.blogspot.com/  The one above uses two different but similar patterns called Flux Maria and Flux Rick.  Maria and Rick are the originators of the Zentangle  craze.

I was intrigued by this shadow all away across my yard and driveway in front of the house this morning.  It first came to my attention when two Robins were hopping along and then for some reason began to fight!  I guess they are territorial!  Notice how different the shadow shape is from the actual tree shape.  It (the shadow)makes the tree base much thinner and the limbs closest to me much larger.

This is a wonderful March Swap I received from Lisa Crail all the way from Australia.  She not only sent me these two paintings done with some collaged papers in back of the portrait but the painted and charcoal drawing of a bird, and a decorated envelope and small ink drawing of a figure.  See Lisa's Facebook page at, Lisa Crail-Painting From the Heart. These swaps were through Community Thrive.

Many of you may have seen my collage work on Facebook.  I really enjoyed a workshop led by Karen Sako a couple of weekends ago.  

We got 4 pieces accomplished.

They are below with a little explanation of the process.

Three birds from the same reference, different size and shape of paper. Then a house/landscape collage from a reference. All from Karen Sako's most fun Mixed Media Workshop. 

Number three Bird-just let loose! Different shape and feather arrangement!

Bird #2- stencils,ink,clear gesso, collaged paper, paint and pastel. — at Mainstreet Art Center, Lake Zurich, IL.

Number one Bird. More Traditional, drawing,stencil,paper prepared from magazine page, clear gesso, paint, pastel.

Hopperesque! Paper handmade sky, paper house, paper shadow on house, paper foreground. Painted smaller shadows and sheets on the line. Marker outlines, and dog.

Well, that's it, Folks!

I am posting today, early for Paint Party Friday, and somewhat late for I Am The Diva!

Have a Good Week,

Gloria