January 7 Project with CJS 2020

January 7th's project is with Birgit Koopsen. Her SUPER POWER is Mixed Media Gelli Prints.  I was trying to do my first one and made a lot of mistakes!

I made the mistake of going back and forth watching the video and then going to do my gelli painting. So the paint was dry by the time I got the paper to print on.  

But not to get defeated I tried spraying cardstock with water and letting it be damp, with the Gelli resting on it.  That didn’t work.

Next I remembered that if you cover the surface with clear shipping tape, the kind that is about 2 inches wide, it totally cleans off your gelli plate. So I got some dry computer paper and I covered the surface of the gelli completely with tape. Then I carefully lifted the tape off and applied it in one piece to the clean dry paper. It worked! I have a tape print! My painting composition is too equally divided, but next time I will know how to do this and be more asymmetrical and interesting. What a neat technique! 

7" x 5"

Reworked Day 2 and some Thank You Card Fronts.

Hello, I decided that Day 2 was too busy, so I reworked it by unifying the background to get rid of all the dots. I hope it is more legible now. 

I am also trying to get my Christmas Thank You notes out. I like to make the front of the card a decoration showing one of the gifts given.  So here are some of those,too.

THE REWORKED VERSION.

THANK YOU FOR MACADAMIA NUTS

among other gifts from them!

TEA TOWEL

among other gifts from them.

MOVIE GIFT CARD

among other gifts from them

HEDGEHOG CANDLES(2) AND A CD MOVIE

First Creative Jumpstart Project 2020 with Natalie Kalbach

Hello Again, 
A New Year  is here and I am starting off with the resolution to get back to my art!  
I have two new knees and I am feeling great!

The first project this year is my version of "Transformation" with instructor Natalie Kalbach who is the founder of Creative Jump Start.  I have joined CJS for the last 4 years. I feel it gets me off to a good start and is inspiring.  

For the 31 days of January each year, Natalie has a group of 31 artists who follow a theme and do a short video of instruction on their interpretation of the theme. This year the theme is about what each artist thinks is their SUPER POWER,when it comes to their art.  Natalie's is the way she transforms one thing into another form or use.

After we do our own version of Natalie's SUPER POWER we post on our own websites as well as on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.  It is really fun to see how everyone interprets the video of the day.

Below are my versions of "Transformation" for January 1, 2020.

I used cut cardboard, rubber stamps, stencils, gesso, acrylic paint, and ink.  This is about 8"H x 6"W.  To see more detail, click on the image to enlarge.

This piece of cardboard had some large black numbers and several smaller ones, which added interest to the design.

The first painting had the sku of the box in black which you can see along the bottom when you enlarge. The same supplies were used.

"Hello" to all my friends on Paint Party Friday.  Please check all the wonderful Art on their website.

Limited Palette

Good Morning!  I am all fixed up with two new knees(and in 2014, two new shoulders!).  I should be good to go for quite awhile now.

I haven't posted for many months. But wanted to show you one photo of my backyard after our Halloween snow yesterday.
I also have a mixed media painting that I finished recently called "Just Passing Through."

Happy Paint Party Friday!

"Limited Palette"

"Just Passing Through"

Have a great day!

Gloria 

Some Finished Projects

I am happy with one of my finished Cold Wax paintings started in Mark Russells' workshop.  Mark suggested doing a series, so I am trying impressions of trees for my series.  Posting to Paint Party Friday.  Enjoy all the artists that Kristen and Eva host each week.

9 x 12 on Arches Oil Paper

In Karen Sako's Mixed media Collage Class we did two projects for Halloween.  Both use paper, transfers, and acrylic paint.

10 x 8" on Board

6 x 6" on Board

Cold Wax Projects Drying on my table.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Moving Forward with Mixed Media"

Sunday March 12, I enjoyed another mixed media workshop with Karen Sako at Mainstreet Art Center in Lake Zurich, IL .

Each table had a pod of people(either 3 or 4) and supplies to share for the pod. Each pod was given a limited palette to work with. Our table got lime green, and turquoise blue as well as black and white. ’

The first thing we all did was apply gesso to a piece of watercolor paper that was 12 x 6, a smaller 6 x 6 piece and a piece of illustration board that was 9 x 12. Those three pieces would be the basis for our three finished projects so they had to have time to dry while we were making more papers.

Next was to do 3 minute drawings(paintings with our colors and India Ink). We did two large, about 20 x 24 in size and one smaller about 9 x 12.  

Another fun project was using long wooden dowels with leaves, strings and rubber bands attached to the ends. Each stick had a different thing attached. We got three more pieces of paper and a plate of very liquid paint to dip into and scribble around on our papers.  Every couple of minutes we had to pass our stick to the person on the left so that we could try out each type of texture on our papers. 

After all the prep we began to assemble our pieces by ripping our papers up and gluing them on our three gessoed papers.  We could add acrylic paint, pastel pencils, pastel sticks, ink, and pan pastels.  There were stencils to use and we tried some transfers.  

It was a great day!  Here are my three original finished projects after I added some marks and lines when I got home and everything had dried.

Happy Paint Party Friday, and have a great week.

Gloria J Zucaro's "UnderPear"

First of all "Happy 6th Anniversary/Birthday" to Eva & Kristins' PAINT PARTY FRIDAY site that gives many artists a place to show their artwork each week.
I always enjoy and get inspired by what my artist friends from around the world are doing. Not only do they share their artwork, but many show photos from their area of the world, offer advice on supplies and techniques and viewpoints on various topics of world interest.

A couple of weeks ago I showed you the beginnings of a mixed media project.  I got it finished this week.  I finished the background with various stencils, stamps, Neocolor Crayons, Marks All pencil, Posca Pens, collage and acrylic paint.  Now the decision was between covering most of the background and allowing it to show through in one area, or leaving the background mostly exposed and covering an area to give the eye a resting place.  Since I had tried the first option previously I decided to leave most of the background showing this time.

Here is the finished project.  The original WIP is below it.  I am calling this "UnderPear" a play on Underwear!

Here is the WIP photo shown two weeks ago

Have a wonderful week of celebration Kristin and Eva and thanks for another year of Paint Party Friday!

I would love to hear your comments.

~gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Fifth Project with Jimmy Leslie"

Today's video was about all the different ways to use our acrylic mediums and paints.  Jimmy Leslie also suggested using supplies that are lying around the house and yard for applying our mediums or for adding 3-D elements to our collage work.  So I used the mediums I had to do to my two pieces.  I tried making skins with my acrylic paints plus Airbrush Flow Medium.  It takes practice!  How to spread the paint on a surface, how thick if you want transparency, and how to remove it in more than a zillion small pieces when it dries!  I had thought to make fairly large pieces so that I could cut it into strips to weave together, thereby changing the colors.  For example, Jimmy showed a hanging piece that had the three primaries of red, yellow, blue.  When they were woven together the yellow and blue made green, etc. But alas!  My paint was applied to thinly, and totally shredded when I tried to remove it from the palette.  I decided to glue it onto a clear plastic card cover.  I did overlap some shreds and for at night when there is not window light behind it, I added some opaque paint in drips, and dashes here and there.

  

Examples of skins using either Credit card, knife or brayer to apply to palette paper.

On the window, you can see through the lighter colors

Flat on the table to see how it will look at night on the window

For my other part of this project, I painted over an old painting with 2 coats of Black Gesso.  Then I used my Flexible Modeling Paste to Stencil some large snowflakes along the top edge.  I added a Stencil of a bird using Ceramic Stucco and a dried twig.  I used Heavy Gel Medium to cement down the twig.  Then I had to let everything dry.  Next I added some Handmade collage paper along the bottom edge.  I used SILKS paints to color the stucco on the bird and splattered with white Fluid Acrylic paint.  I wondered about adding more, or changing the bird to look more like a Cardinal, but decided I liked it as it is.

Now on to the next CJS 2017 Project!

Gloria j Zucaro's "Day Two of CJS 2017 with Mystele"

Mystele definitely has a style all her own.  She loves outsider art and paints intuitively without references.  She picks and glues down her underlayer of text, parts of old artwork of hers, music scores, bits of magazines,etc.  Afterwards she draws the beginnings of a large face that eventually gets painted in with  a few parts of the underlayment showing.  Mystele demonstrated a "mash-up" of a large face. Following her example, here is my Day 2 of Creative Jumpstart 2017

.  I collaged over an old painting on an 10"H x 8"W board.  One of the pieces I used was the top of a memo pad from the Home Store.  It was beautifully decorated with flowers, gold striping, and rhinestones as well as a picture of the Eiffel Tower.  I reluctantly covered most of it, leaving only part of the Eiffel Tower and the rhinestones showing.  For me that is one of the hardest parts of mixed media, covering that very busy and colorful bottom layer that I love!  But I can see from other artists that it is one of the processes that makes your piece interesting and gives it depth.

Have a great day!

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Day One with Creative Jumpstart 2017"

And the new year begins.  I joined Creative Jumpstart again this year. Our hostess for the jump is Nathalie Kalbach.  We will have 27 other artists doing demo videos for us and then we do our own version from their example.  On the first day of January we had a welcome video from Nathalie along with a suggestion of playing music we enjoy as we create.  There was also an opportunity to join a random raffle for a prize.  The raffles will occur at the beginning of each of the 4 weeks in January.  And that is how long CJS 2017 lasts...for a whole month!  How great is that.  So much fun!  Our first demonstration video was by Marsha Valk.  I learned about two new techniques in that one day. Below is the result...my version of Marsha's example.  I hope you too have been inspired to get going with your art in the new year. Have a great week,

                  Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Going Up"

Good Morning!  It has been forever since I have posted.  I got overwhelmed by family changes, construction, illness and death.  In other words..."LIFE!"  All is more sane now, so I have posted to the site called Paint My Photo where you can find all sorts of free photographs to use in your artwork.
I used one of the photographers photos for my abstract acrylic collage piece called "Going Up?"  I was thinking of old time elevators where an attendant was the one in control of the workings of the elevator in fancy hotels and residences.
I will be posting to Paint Party Friday, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest.   I took Joan Fullerton workshop last weekend and assembled my piece during her class.  What fun! Have a wonderful week,
                                                                 Gloria

140 lb. watercolor paper, acrylic high flo paint,stencils,gesso,Gelli plate papers, old text, photo transfer of suspension bridge(https://pmp-art.com/nicola-b/gallery/115775/humber-bridge)

Gloria J Zucaro's "Snow Queens Four"

Hello!, Happy Mother's Day to all.  I just finished a mixed media piece that I really enjoyed making.  I did a lot of collage , paint, and scribbling underneath the portraits of my snow queens.  After they were dry I used a stencil and modeling paste to create the dimensional snowflakes around the fur of their hoods.

Thankfully most of our Winter has disappeared into blooming Spring flowers and the Robins return!  Have a good week, and thank you for visiting! :>)

I am posting to Paint Party Friday, so check all the wonderful artwork displayed there!                              Paint Party Friday

The Week of Frida Kahlo in Review

"Hello" Paint Party Friday Members.  This past week with my Creative Jumpstart 2016 was inspired by Frida Kahlo.  I did a post for each painting, but here they are for you in one post.  They are all my individual mixed-media pieces following the technique examples done by the artist instructor of the day.  I list the instructor's name by the project they were in charge of.  

I also did a Zentangle this week with the group at "I Am the Diva".  It was suggested that we use the Moebius Syndrome Icon as our starting point for our tangles.  Their color is purple, so I used red and purple.  I did it on a 7 x 5 card.  Have a good week.

With Mario Robinson

With Andrea Gomoll

With Mystele Kirkeeng

With Jane LaFazio

Zentangle Moebius

I hope you enjoyed my week!

Gloria J Zucaro's, "Frida Herself".

Tonight I have my portrait of Frida herself, not of me playing Frida.

This project was led by Mystele Kirkeeng for the Creative Jumpstart 2016.
Mystele started with a stucco applied surface.  I didn't have stucco so used modeling paste by Golden that I applied then rolled with a brayer. It made a very interesting tree-bark-like surface.  I let it dry overnight. The next step was to collage on some papers.  I had two with leaves and two with text from an old dictionary.  We were then to draw our outlines with pencil for Frida's head and face.  I also found some paper I wanted to use for her shirt/top, which I glued in place after drawing her head and shoulders.  The rest of the painting was done in layers of paint with ink and gesso in layers.  I used pearlized paint for part of her headdress.

And the final

Have a great day tomorrow, and leave a comment if you are so inclined.

Gloria

"Frida and Zentangle Moebius"

Today I am finally posting my painting from January 16 with Frida Kahlo inspiration and project led by Andrea Gomoll.  I kept trying to get it to look like I wanted it but it took a couple days of just thinking about it to decide what to do.  So then I got behind on the next two projects since we have one a day for 4 or 5 days in a row.  Catch-up time!

In Andrea's example she painted different types of leaves in her background, then took a black and white photo of herself and adhered it to the page.  Next she painted more leaves and flowers on separate paper, then cut them out and glued them on with foam dots that raised them off the page in the area to mimic Frida's floral headdress.

I decided to do the painted on leaves in the background, then add cut-outs from Dover books of flowers and butterflies that my daughter Lucy had given to me.  Well, my leaf paintings were terrible! I had painted them over some collage I had added first and I had tried also to stamp on some leaves but the foam stamps wouldn't imprint on the rough collage surface.  I also stamped on some birds. What a mess! But I proceeded to add the floral headdress anyway.

I outlined the flowers with black ink, then white ink.  I added the butterflies and did the same.  Then I added white ink, then changed the background color, then added Silks paint + gel over the butterflies. Everything was too dark.  Finally, today I added gesso mixed with an underlying blue watercolor pencil and added two larger pink flowers to the hair piece.  Now I am pretty happy with it.

The Final! Posted to Creative Jumpstart 2016

I am also posting to "I am the Diva"-Laura Harms site.  This week is highlighting the children with Moebius Syndrome.  Her youngest son is one of only 5000 people in the whole world that has this condition. Every year at this time, we use the symbol for the organization and their color purple in our Zentangle.  I used a 7" x 5" box piece covered with gesso as my substrate.  Please visit The Diva's site to see all the imaginative ways to tangle this image.