Gone for over a month!

Hello again, Paint Party Friday Friends!  I have been doing some art all these days I have been gone.  Although I had an invalid friend stay with me for ten days, then hosted my book club Christmas party, then Christmas and New Years (like all of you!).  My paintings since I was last here. 

Well, that is it for now. I am participating in Creative Jumpstart 2018 hosted by Nathalie Kalbach.

Many of these pieces are from that on-line workshop.  I have been posting on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and my Pinterest page.

Have a good week. I hope to catch up with everyone soon.

Gloria J Zucaro's " Trying Some Intuitive Abstract"

This week I switched gears like I often do and have a work in process. I used black and white acrylic paint and a couple of colorful inks. I did some stamping and small pieces of collage. I don't like it yet. Too busy and too colorful all over. I plan on adding some black and white text pieces, some more stenciling and stamping and some gesso cover-up. Then I hope to see areas that really appeal to me to make into my focal points.  I did have fun so far though!  I am linking to Paint Party Friday.
Have a peek at that site and have a good week.
Oh yes, I have a question and would appreciate your help.
I now have some beautiful stamps from Nathalie Kalbach and from Darkroom Door.  I don't seem to understand how to use them!  I never get a good imprint with all the details.  I don't know if my inks are not good, or should I roll on some paint?  What is the best way to proceed?  Thanks so much!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Reservoir"

I am sorry to have missed last week's post.  I had more dental surgery and then a mild case of stomach flu.  I finally had to make time for putting away Christmas, start to collect tax papers, clean house and recuperate!  So I have several unfinished projects from Creative Jumpstart 2017 hosted by Nathalie Kalbach.  This week I worked on and finished a painting I had started last Spring.  I changed it quite a bit and am now satisfied with it.  I am linking to Paint Party Friday, hosted by Kristin and Eva.  Many fine artists from all over the world display their work every Friday.  Check it out.  You will be inspired. 
Oil on canvas, 10"H x 10"W

Gloria J Zucaro's "First Five Days of Creative Jumpstart 2017"

I joined Nathalie Kalbach and 27 other artist demonstrators to participate as a student for the month of January.  Since I can only show Paint Party Friday one post, and since I have to post each project separately for the special CJS 2017 link-up, this is my second post tonight.  I will show you the 4 days of projects so far.  Day one was a welcome video by the hostess Nathalie.  Each of the other four days were other artists whose demos we watched and used some of their techniques to do our own version of the project. Please check in to Paint Party Friday hosted for the last 6 years by Eva and Kristin.  You will find wonderful art and inspiration there.

First Project Day 2 with Marsha Valk

Day 3 with Mystele Kirkeeng

Day 4 with Glyn Macey

Day 5 fourth Project with Pam Carriker

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

"Anselm Kiefer Abstract and Jodi Ohl Birds"

Tonight I have a couple of different projects. 

My first two photos are of practice birds  that were a homework assignment to do in my journal given in Jodi Ohl's "Dirty Flirty Birds" workshop. I can see a lot more practice is needed to make the birds come alive. I have a story going on but the birds are just OK.

"Secrets"


Eagle,Fly the Flag

The second project is the Anselm Kiefer project inspired by Nathalie Kalbach for Creative Jumpstart 2016. She did an abstract and attached organic elements to it. I started with black gesso, then put on crackle medium. When that dried, I added dryer lint for the bird, ink in black and white, a touch of burnt sienna acrylic paint over the crackle, some red paint mixed with gel medium and some aqua ink mixed with white gesso, then I added two ball bearings to the aqua "pools". I wrote in German, because Kiefer usually wrote something, my words meaning "Go fast, fly away!"

"Wegfliegen Schnell"

Have a great day,

Gloria :>) happy PPF!

Linking to Paint Party Friday.

"I've Fallen Behind and I Can't Catch Up!"

This week real life had to be attended to so I got behind in my Creative Jumpstart 2016.  The week of Picasso inspired projects was from January 19 through the 24th.  I am posting my last project first and then the final pictures from each project before it. This morning is the last day of Jumpstart 2016 and it has been wonderful.  What a great experience!  I had so much fun and learned so much. Thank you Nathalie Kalbach and all the participating artists who led the demos.  I still have the week of projects on Anselm Kiefer to do but the project videos are mine forever, so no problem catching up as I can.  I also started Jodi Ohl's class "Dirty Flirty Birds" on the 20th, but had to stop with those for this past week, too.  I will be able to more forward with both classes, now that gathering tax papers, getting car stickers, complaining in person to Comcast, and on the phone to Apple, moving furniture for deliveries,paying bills, etc. has passed! 
I am linking to Paint Party Friday, so take a look at that site which offers creative endeavors from many talented artists.

Picasso Peacock Led By Miriam Schulman

Stage one, background paint, then collaged papers with drawing of Peacocks.

Gessoed over Peacock, added green oil pastel in background

Stenciled "spines",added lines in headdress, blue ink on bodies

Added "eyes" to spines and eyes to Peacocks in white paint.

Added white "V's" on spines, red beaks, lines in background, yellow, red and white in all eyes

Picasso Fish Collage with Gwen Lafleur

Tulip Painting with Catherine Scanlon

Two-Layer Cardboard Picasso with Marsha Valk

Picasso Fragmented Objects with Nathalie Kalbach

Have a wonderful week and Thank You for stopping by.  Please leave a comment if you are so inclined.  Gloria

Picasso via Nathalie Kalbach on Defragmented Explorations

That is a long title!  Basically in Nathalie's demo she explained a very interesting concept. You pull out 4 or 5 small objects with nice shapes and draw them onto your surface with pencil. You draw their backs, their fronts, their bottoms, their tops, their sides!  You start with one object, drawing it from one viewpoint and then as you draw the others you fill up the entire surface. This is my version, using some objects I had lying around. A soft bodied paint bottle, a small pair of scissors, a 2" paint brush, a pencil sharpener and a scotch tape dispenser. Her final project looked more cubist because she shaded her objects. But I had fun and learned a lot while doing it. 

I used oil pastels and Neocolor watersoluble pastels and a Sharpie oil marker for outlining. Oh, I used some Derwent Inktense pencils and Liquitex paint markers, too.

Cubist Project

In the beginning

Have a nice night,

See you tomorrow I hope. :>)

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Paula, Basquiat and Me"

Our mixed-media artist instructor with Creative Jumpstart 2016 led by Nathalie Kalbach for January 10 was Paula Phillips. She showed different methods of layering.  The one I had never tried before was to layer several colors, and put in words or areas with a white oil pastel. Cover that with a thin layer of acrylic paint.  Then use your heat gun or hair dryer to melt the oil pastel layer.  Wipe away with a baby wipe and you will see the first layers underneath.  So cool.

Paula had a "stack of books" stencil which I did not have, so I looked through my stash to see what I had that I might use.  I found a couple of text stamps, and a Tiki mask stamp.  The Tiki mask stamp just had that Basquiat "feel" to me, so I stamped it in several places and then used the design as my focal point. Basquiat also sometimes used large hands in his paintings. They reminded me of Mickey Mouse glove hands, so I added those to my stick figure body. The final and steps are below. I used acrylic paints, Sharpie markers, Golden Gesso and some stamps with a Ranger ink pad. I also drew in words, crowns and scribbles with a Scripto ink pen # 08.

text and bits of magazines, stenciled on paint, matte medium

more paint pressed on with paper towel

stamping

add oil pastel words(tomorrow, ok) and Tiki basic lines for head, add acrylic paint layer, melt off oil pastel to see underneath.

outline Tiki head and the word "tomorrow" in marker

go over page with gesso, wipe some off

Add body, hands and text.  Outline with black and white, fill in some areas with red and black marker.

Gloria J Zucaro's "A Week of Matisse"

This past week has been the start of Creative Jumpstart 2016 led by Nathalie Kalbach.  There are 25 instructors to give us videos for projects with a theme.  This week's theme was master painter Matisse. We did projects using techniques taught by our instructors and using Matisse' art as inspiration.  Below are my Matisse inspired pieces and the name of the instructor.  If you want to see the steps for each project I posted them earlier in the week.  The projects that I finished for today are also below. 

January 2-My painting done after demo by Rae Missigman

January 3-My painting done after demo by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

January 4-My painting done after demo by Michelle Ward

January 5-My painting done after demo by Carmen Sanchez

see the steps below the 1/06/2016 painting

January 6-My painting done after demo by Joanne Sharp

Steps for the Carmen Sanchez project.

Stage One, using odds & ends from candy wrappers, envelopes, stamps glued down with Gel medium.  I will post this project to Carolyn Dube's site also as using recycled materials is her theme this month.

Stage two.  Carmen showed using a stencil with modeling paste

The final touches were adding torn tissue with matte medium and some acrylic paint in the Matisse color scheme.  I also added some doodling and writing in pen and ink.

I am also posting to Paint Party Friday

have a good week and leave me a comment if you are so inclined,

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Matisse Fancy Lady"

I apologize!  For some reason Blogger keeps sending out this same post multiple times??

Today's' Creative Jumpstart (hosted by Nathalie Kalbach) guest artist is Julie Fei-Fan Belzer.  Julie's demo was her version of one of Matisse' portraits.  So I decided to follow her example.  Here is my "Matisse Fancy Lady".  I really couldn't pass up all the wild colors!

And my inspiration photo of Matisse' original below.

Below the two photos of Julie's painting and her inspiration are my steps to the final of my painting. She chose the one below because she was intrigued by the green stripe down the middle of the face.

Below is her finished version.

My first stage, drawing in the photo with my NeoColor 11 watercolor crayons.  I have had them for a year and never used them before!

Stage Two, using a brush and water to soften the background.

Stage three soften the portrait and make some corrections to nose and hat.

Stage four.  I changed the ear shape and size, added Oil Pastels because I didn't have any gouache watercolors.  Julie used the gouache.  At the end I darkened many areas and added iridescent oil pastels.  That is another supply I have had for over a year and never used before!  I tried adding the white marks, but mostly I am a black mark girl!  Thanks for stopping by, and please leave a comment if you are so inclined. (:>)