Gloria J Zucaro's "Better Late Than Never" Post

Our project on Tuesday afternoon was "Paint a mass of something".  We could either use Frankie's references or do a still life using our own "mass".  My friend Judy brought some vintage marbles, others used Frankie's reference photos as did I.  I chose a bowl of strawberries, with some berries scattered on the table.  We talked about varying the colors and edges from front to back and in the shadows.  Up front or in the light there was greater contrast and sharper edges.  In the shadows the color was toned down and the edges were softer.  Way to the back, the colors were even darker and the edges almost smeared to disappear into the background.  Below is my finished pastel painting.

On Wednesday we all cowered and cringed as we were told the project of the day!  We were to use the easy method learned on Monday morning of making figures.  With as few direct strokes as possible. The other part of the project was to combine two scenes of people into one composition.  All of these references were from scenes in various bars.  So people sitting or standing, waiters & waitresses, young couples, etc.  I chose as my reference a very cheerful young man lifting his beer glass in salutation.  The background was from the another bar scene that had three men in it, paintings or pictures on the wall(probably sports figures or celebrities) and some low hanging lights.  I left out the other men and the low hanging lights.  I used the colors in that reference for my background with my handsome young man.  Here is my finished piece.

Below is a fun little painting I did this afternoon using figures and a stair-step look.

Here are a couple more paintings in my "Marla" series.  All of this post will be shared with Paint Party Friday.                                                         !

Number Eleven

Number Twelve

Number Thirteen

Number Fourteen

Have a great weekend, and check the other artists work at PPF!   

 Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "July Variations"

I have been enjoying a more leisurely pace with my artwork in the last couple of months.  I needed to pull back from 4 challenges a week and 3 in addition monthly.  Since starting my Marla inspired variations, I have amazed myself that I could really tolerate doing more than two of anything.  But since when I start a new variation, I only look at my black and white prototype, I never really get the same pastel painting twice.

I had shown you numbers one through three a couple of weeks ago.  Here are 4-9.  If you would like to be able to see more detail, click on the image and it will enlarge.  I am posting this to Paint Party Friday, which has a huge assortment of talented artists participating every week.  My gallery of works can also be found on Pinterest, Facebook and Twitter.

Number Four

Number Five

Number Six

Number Seven

Number Eight  

I could tell I was getting into and Orange and Purple rut, so Number Nine below has some different colors.  That is a quandary!  What if you are an Orange and Purple personality?

Number Nine

Thank you for visiting, and have a good week! 

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.