Learning about Mark Russells' technique for using Cold Wax.

Good Morning!
Last weekend was  the Cold Wax and Oil Paint workshop with Mark Russell at Mainstreet Art Center in Lake Zurich, IL.  
Mark did a demo that showed us how to mix the wax, the paint and a medium to thin or thicken, and his method of always having a horizon line as someplace for the viewers' eye to rest. Then we all went back to our individual tables to try it on our own as he walked around to see how we were doing and answered any questions. He did a demo each morning and afternoon. 
He was most generous with sharing some of his supplies.  He had a gallon of cold wax and some scrapers/shapers if we cared to purchase them, and the mediums.  he also sometimes drops in some sprinkles of  soft pastel that comes in a powder.  He puts a fairly large quantity of the wax onto his palette-maybe 1/4 cup in amount,  He also put out three different mediums including Galkyd, Gamblin Neomegilp. and Gamblin Solvent Free gel.  He uses Gamblin's Chromatic Black because it is the only transparent black oil paint.  One of the demos he did was to show the difference in using a transparent black with another color and white, and using an opaque black with another color and black.  The difference was amazing, there was a beautiful glow with the transparent black, and we all ordered our Gamblin Chromatic Black right then!  In Mark's paintings he layers from 12 to 20 colors of grayed-down paint and put the layers on very transparently.  He makes random marks in each layer and puts on paint and rubs it off in some spots to show the layer beneath.  Each layer may take a couple of days to dry, so he has a dozen pieces going at one time.
Since our workshop was only 2 days our pieces had about 3 layers.  We had to be careful not to get some muddy looks that you avoid by letting the layers dry.  I discovered my layers were not as transparent, and would take longer to dry to the touch-three layers times two days to dry each equals about a week to dry...

Here are some examples of my work. I forgot about horizons in some, and mine are more colorful and abstract than his work.  I will do more layers over some.

I am posting to Paint Party Friday hosted by Kristine and Eva and a great spot for seeing the work of many other artists from around the world.  Have a good week making art-Gloria 

Gloria J Zucaro's, Susan Ploughe's "Waterways" Workshop

     I posted so lte last week so am posting this again to Paint Party Friday this week.
This week I took Susan Ploughe’s three day workshop called “Waterways”.   If you are a member of The Venice Art Center in Venice Florida, you have a treat in store!  I understand Susan Ploughe will doing a workshop soon in your location.

In our workshop we went through written information, photos of various types of water and paintings by other artist of lakes, streams, waterfalls, the ocean, reflections and still clear waters.  Susan also did a short demo for each type before we began our own paintings.  She printed out four or five examples for us to pick from and to use as references. In the three days we did six paintings each.  It was not important that you finished a whole painting but that you tried out the technique that helped the viewer recognize the type of water setting you were trying to describe.

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I always enjoy Susan’s workshops because she makes learning and improving my skills both fun and inspiring.  She makes me feel that I am getting better, and shows me alternative ways to get there.  I like the fact that if I am not understanding a certain concept she will pull out an extra surface and demonstrate what she was advocating.  She will not paint on your canvas unless she asks you first, and always suggests that you change it afterward to your own stroke, so that it is “all yours”.  Susan is a nationally awarded painter with The Oil Painters of America and has paintings exhibited in galleries and in magazine articles.  We are so lucky to have her teaching classes and workshops on a regular basis at the Mainstreet Art Centre in Lake Zurich, IL.   You can see Susan Ploughe’s website at  http://susanploughe.com/

I will be posting to Paint Party Friday(late!), Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

My waterfall study done from a copyright free photo

12" x 9" oil on canvas board.

My Waves Study from a painting by Ivan Aivazovsky

12" x 9" oil on canvas board

My Calm Shallow Water Study from copyright free photo

9" x 12" oil on canvas board

My Reflections Study from Copyright Free Photo

8" x 10" on canvas sheet

My Shadows, Ripples, Reflections Study from Copyright Free Photo

8" x 10" oil on canvas sheet

My Mountain/Lake Reflections Study

8" x 10" oil on canvas sheet

Have a great week.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Mainstreet Art Center Christmas Projects"

The week before Christmas is always a celebration at The Mainstreet Art Center where I go to paint twice a week.  I am one of those artists that does enjoy being in the company of other artists when I paint.  It doesn't distract me at all, and my main circle of friends is with other artists I've met since I started painting at Mainstreet in 2004.  Every year before Christmas break we do a special project and then we all eat lunch together with the morning classes staying late, and the afternoon classes coming early.  We each bring a dish to pass.  There are about 30 painters all together. The goal of our project this year was to add interesting backgrounds with different values to figures facing away from the camera.  We picked a specific color palette.  We were to bring references of figures seen from the back or side, one figure preferred, as we were to complete the painting in about 2 hours.

I got my references from Paint My Photo.  They are copyright free and all you need to do after you use a reference is let the photographer know, and link to your painting so they can see it.  If you have a page on their site you can show your painting there also.  Below is the reference called "Dancing Down The Road."  

Below is my painting from Dancing Down The Road. 

10" x 8" Oil on gessoed panel, unframed

My other reference from Paint My Photo was called "Cuban Dancers", see below. 

Since we were only to paint one figure, I had to change the arms and balance of the figure.  This is not finished.  I need to put something in her hands.  I am thinking a jump rope(?). and I need to shape her face better and put a hint of  her features but not enough to distract from the overall figure.

See my WIP painting below.

7" x 5" oil on gessoed panel, unframed

I wish you all a Happy and Healthy 2015!

Linking to Paint Party Friday, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and maybe even Instagram!

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Four Mediums"

Today I am posting a pastel, titled"Texas Meadow".  It is from a photo shared with me by my friend Jeanne Dale.  It may need some minor touches.  But I think it is  pretty much saying what I wanted to say.  I love the viewpoint. and the barbed wire.

12" x 9" Pastel on LaCarte Sanded Paper

Next is a watercolor.  The watercolor was one of my efforts in the Frank Francese workshop at Mainstreet Art Center.

"Homestead"   16" x 20" on 300 LB Wallis

   

The oil, "Siberia in May",  is from a photograph I took out of the window of the Trans-Siberian Railway on a trip from Moscow to Vladivostok in 2004 with my mother. 

 "Siberia in May"  14" x 11" Oil on Canvas

  

Such a beautiful and interesting country Russia!  The Western areas are European, then as we traveled across Siberia we entered the more Asian areas.  We ended in the very cultural city of Vladivostok.

Lastly is an acrylic still life I am doing in Sharron Boxenbaum's class.  It is not finished, as I would like to emphasize more light on the left, change the handle that fights with the edge, make the background more interesting and change the edgework on the top of the bowl.

"Fluted"  Acrylic on Canvas

16" x 12".

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

Gloria J Zucaro's "I Think I Fractured Something!"

How much fun was that!  I did, I did fracture something and it didn't hurt a bit.  I was using Julie Ford Oliver's technique in our last "Contemporary Impressionism" class taught by Ann Feldman at Mainstreet Art Center.  I had bought Julie's Art Byte video on the Daily Paintworks site and watched it with fascination.  But I did not try the technique until Friday with Ann. There were 5 of us in that class and we all used as our reference a still life photo that Ann brought in. It was amazing when we finished to see how differently we all applied our fracturing tool.  Julie has devised a small squeegee and Ann made one for each of us in the class.  If you like the looks of this technique, buy Julie's video on the Daily Paintworks, or come in to Mainstreet in Lake Zurich, IL and take Ann's next class.   Below I have pictures of each of the paintings done in that class.  If you go to Ann's site, you will see her version that she posted today.  Be sure to click on the images to see the really neat details.

By Ginny Breecher

By Carol Breyer

By Maryann Pailey

By Linda Rubens

By Me, Gloria J Zucaro!  Mine is 10"H x 8"W on a previously painted surface.

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 "Jack"

Today my painting is of a Jack Russel mix .  His name appropriately enough is "Jack"!  I found the photo on Paint My Photo.  The photographer's name is Leonard.  I chose the photo to do in an impressionistic workshop class with Ann Feldman.  I did most of it while at Mainstreet Art Centre, but refined it after I got home.  Isn't Jack an adorable puppy?!  I am posting this for my Paint Party Friday entry this week.  I had planned to finish a pastel I am working on since Monday, but family illness got in the way,,,next week!

12" Square Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel.

Click on image to enlarge.

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 "Golden Opportunity"

This my entry for Paint Party Friday, a weekly display from about 85 artists from all over the globe.  The site is hosted by Kristin and Eva,  Thank you, Ladies!
My painting today has undergone many changes.  I first painted it about 4 years ago.  I had all cornstalks in the background, and a very dark black shadow under the crow and all strokes on the pumpkin going one way, and a stem bottom showing on the pumpkin towards the right side of the canvas.  On Monday of this week Susan Ploughe who is one of the instructors at Mainstreet Art Center (where I go to paint with my artists friends a couple of times a week) asked us to all bring in a couple of our "duds", the paintings that did not work out as planned.  So I took my crow and pumpkin.  It was predominately orange and yellow over the whole painting, the pumpkin, the ground, the background of cornstalks.  There was some green in the leaves and some of the cornstalks, but otherwise all orange & yellow!  Susan had a sneaky idea up her sleeve!  She had us trade our paintings with someone else and we were each to work on the other person's painting, so that the painting would be looked at with a new perspective.  Susan told us that if we didn't like what the other person did with our painting we could just wipe it off with turp, since all our paintings were dry long ago.  Well, I worked on Corrine's Napa Valley painting and she worked on my crow.  Corrine merged all the cornstalks together with some different background colors that were impressionistic, and the painting was so much better, but it was still oranges, yellows and greens.  After I went home, I thought about it and decided that blue might be good with the orange, since they are compliments.  So today I changed the shape of the pumpkin, changed the direction of the strokes on the pumpkin, lightened the really dark shadow, as suggested by Ann Feldman, added many different colors to the leaves, made the broken piece of pumpkin shell the right value, and got rid of all the orange in the background with sky blue.  Oh, what a relief it is! ( I am singing this part!) LOL!

11"H x 14"W Original Oil on Stretched Canvas

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.