Gloria J Zucaro's "A Floral Bouquet for Frida"

I had fallen behind in posting so this is my second post today and the last project inspired by Friday Kahlo.  This project was led by Jane Lafazio. Jane did a wonderful drawing of flowers and then painted them with watercolor. Below is my version. I drew the flowers in ink, then used Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils to put the colors in my flowers. I then wet the pencil to make the effect of watercolor.  I did the background in yellows oranges and blues.  But when I wet it, it wasn't intense enough to make the flowers pop.  So I started added layers of inks in the same colors.  I also tried a stencil in a deep rose that was eventually mostly covered.  I added more pink to the blossoms and made the branch darker.  Then I splattered with white.  I like the final result.  I am really loving the ink because of the vibrant colors you can achieve.

And the final

Gloria J Zucaro's "Matisse Impressions"

I have been home the last few days with something "flu-like".  I had signed up for Creative Jumpstart 2016 led by Nathalie Kalbach and a weekly challenge with Roberta Laliberte using palette color prompts.

I used the colors in Roberta's palette and used the theme from Jumpstart.

Our first of 25 videos on Jumpstart was by Rae Missigman.  She did a floral in the style of Matisse.  We were to do our own painting in his style also.

Here are my step-by-steps

A Matisse Original Painting

The Paints

Roberta Laliberte color palette

Rae Missigman's finished Matisse-like Floral

Journal page-cover with Liquitex Matte medium, let dry

Make drawing with black Sharpie

Add Paint

Next Rae had added white paint over everything and then scraped it off with a card.  I was too chicken!  My paper is one of those woven types, I thought it would rip.  So I covered it with waxed paper.  I did not like it at all, as I am a bright color high contrast painter!  But it did add texture which I liked by the end.

Covered with wax paper and matte medium!  I redrew around the shapes with a scripto pen.

So I repainted it, using the acrylic paints with some Dr. Martin Inks added for fun!

After that dried I did some outlines in white/black scripto and called it a day!

Stay well and come back soon!

Gloria

Gloria j Zucaro's "Sun and Sky"

This week I have another pastel to share.  It is called "Sun  and Sky" and was painted from a photograph I took during a drive out near Harvard,IL.  I saw this scene out my car window and stopped to take a picture.  I love the reflections of the trees in the cloudy water and then the blue, blue sky reflection.

Below is a Fall street in the town of Palatine, IL

And one from my back yard

If you love art of all types please look at the website below where I am posting today.  

It is hosted by Kristin & Eva, thank you, Ladies! 

I am linking this post to Paint Party Friday

Gloria J Zucaro's "Taos Mourner"

I posted this on my Facebook page last week, but for those of you who missed it, I thought I would post it here for Paint Party Friday this week.
My older daughter Lucy and I took a 4 day trip to Sante Fe and Taos, New Mexico a few years ago.  We visited the Taos Adobe while we were there.  There is an area on one side where they have the cemetery. This woman was actually our guide.  She looked so wonderful with her umbrella/parasol and agreed to have her picture taken in front of the cemetery wall.

"Taos Mourner"

10" x 8" Pastel on watercolor paper with 2 coats of Pastel Ground

Be sure to visit the PPF blog and enjoy all the wonderful art.  Get to know the artists, too!  Have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Intuitive Painting"

Well, I wouldn't call this a success, but at least it is a start.  I am trying to learn about intuitive painting.  I have seen beautiful work by many artists who "see shapes" and and are able to bring them out of a background in such a way, it looks mystical. 

My process was to layer some warm acrylic colors and spray them with water to get them to mix.  After that layer dried, I added some blues, greens and purples and sprayed those.  I didn't like that layer at all so immediately sprayed some red, yellow and orange ink on top to warm it up again.  When that dried I searched for the "shapes".  I came up with some very cliche shapes!  A puppy, bunny, bird, angel, butterfly and what I call a "Hippo Bird"   He is probably the most interesting!  I traced them in with a pencil, then painted and decorated them.  I added "Try Something New" in glitter alphabet letters, and "Be Brave"

 in black pencil.  I added a little white pen around a few things.  It was an "experience"!  Oh well, maybe next time!

The final painting in all it's glory below!!

I am linking to Community Thrive and Paint Party Friday.

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 "Demented Candy Corn from Tracy Delisle and Sun Filled "

I am sorry I took so long to get my "Thank You" to Tracy Delisle  out for this incredible "Demented Candy Corn" piece of art by Tracy.  I have it on my mantel in the family room and just love it.  Tracy is known for her very original pieces of three-D art.

"Demented Candy Corn"

This past week I finished a pastel I was working on.  I am trying to decide on a title I like.

This painting is 9" x 12" on La Carte sanded Pastel Paper.

Contact me if interested in purchase.  May be enlarged by clicking on picture.  Thank you for taking a look.   

                    Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Visiting Artist"

Today my special guest post is work done by a 17 year old from Florida.  His name Is Chris Stevenson. He enjoys, Line Art, Graffiti and other forms of drawing including Intuitive.  He works in pen, ink and markers.  Below are two of his recent works.  I look forward to seeing more of his artwork, especially since he is my grandson! :>)

06/17/2014

06/18/2014

Have a great day!  

We would love to hear your comments, 

Thanks, Gloria & Chris.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Lakebreeze Courtyard Fountain"

Here is one of my latest pastels.  I had a photo of the water feature in my townhouse courtyard at Lakebreeze Ct.. The townhouse sold in early May, thanks to my Realtor Louis Zucaro :>) The picture inspired me to start my new gardens here at Rosewood.  How could I not be inspired when my new address has such a pretty name.  I am posting this to Paint Party Friday

"Lakebreeze Courtyard Fountain"

Pastel on sanded paper  12 x 9

 Detail # 1

Detail # 2

Before I forget, I have four pastel paintings in the Dole Gallery at Lakeside Legacy Galleries in Crystal Lake ,IL.  A group of artist friends called "The Watercooler Ladies" are showing with me. The first Friday of every month the Legacy Galleries have an opening celebration for the groups of artists on display that month. There is an open bar, great food, and this June we will have the Suzuki Strings again.  So if you live in the area and would like to come to see two different exhibits and relax with a beverage and some nibbles, come on out on  Friday June 6th from 5  PM until 8 PM. here is the Facebook link.

Gloria j Zucaro's "Summer Sloth"

That is such a funny word!  I know it is one of the deadly sins in the Bible.  It is also the animal that moves so slowly you can hardly notice(except your eyes are glued onto his terribly threatening 4 inch toenails!).  But sometimes I feel like a sloth because I think I should do a particular task, and then I think, "Oh, I will do that later, I would rather..."  So I actually didn't even realize that 4 days had gone by since I last posted!  I have had decisions on moving, conversations about finances, open house visits to possible houses, doctors appointments, scheduling for carpet cleaning, electrical fixes and more pleasurably, visits with friends and family this last week.  But now I am here and ready to show you some of the fun and challenging projects we did at The Clearing.  

Our second painting that we started on Monday afternoon was an "Egg Painting using color references from Zhaoming Wu."  I am quoting Frankie's title on our synopsis of projects.  Frankie had made many reference photos of eggs nestled into fabric.  Some were on pedestals, some just surrounded on the fabric.    We were to use these only as a starting point, but to learn from this how to design/compose a painting by placing your egg in an area and leading the viewer to it.  We were also supposed to show how the colors surrounding the egg reflect onto it.  Use soft and hard edges and most important, too, use a color combination that we didn't ordinarily use or even disliked!  Here is my pastel painting of my egg.

8" Square Wallis Paper with Terry Ludwig Pastels.

I surprised myself with being more abstract than usual.  If you notice, no turquoise!

Tuesday morning was the beginning of a really fun project!  Frankie titled it "Paint an Ice Cream Sundae".  Frankie and her husband Jay decided to stop at Steak & Shake to do research(Yeah, I bet! lol)  Anyway after taking pictures at Steak & Shake for two days in a row of different ice cream concoctions that they paid for and ate, Frankie decided it was going to be too expensive and fattening to make 30 reference pictures.  So she went on-line and got copyright-free photos.          This was my choice to paint because, of course, I was attracted, not to the banana split, but to the background colors.  Well originally I tried to put in all the squares of color, but alas, it looked horrible!  So a very abstract background using those colors is shown below with my actual painting.  

8" x 10" Wallis Paper with Terry Ludwig Pastels.

It was so much fun that afternoon to see all the different ice cream treats created by 15 artists!

More tomorrow or the next slothless day!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Three A Day"

After three weeks I am back from my road trip with my 92 (years-young) mother.  She is always ready for a new adventure.  We met in Chattanooga, TN for a family wedding, both flying in for the occasion. 

We attended the rehearsal dinner along with everyone else who was from out of town at the "Blue Water Grill" hosted by the groom's parents.  We were served great food and the wedding party entertained us with funny stories about the bride and groom.  

The wedding the next evening was at "The Church on Main", which is actually no longer a church but an event venue.  The old building had been stripped down inside to show the brick and rafters, but was still enclosed by beautiful arched windows and the old wood flooring.  The front half of the space was separated off with white curtains and was set up with a stage and seating for guests.  The back half was closed off until after the ceremony, but was set up as a buffet with food, bar and wedding cakes(bride's strawberry..groom's oreo) areas to be enjoyed after the vows were taken.  The stage at the front had a white curtain to hide the band set-up which would be revealed when time to dance.  In front of the white curtain there were three beautifully painted aqua wooden doors hinged together decorated with small lanterns and a painted wood cutout of the bride and grooms' initials.  There were 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen and a tiny ring-bearer, the son of the grooms' brother.  All the ladies were dressed in the color tangerine, and they all wore turquoise jewelry.  But the really unique thing is that every single one of their dresses was a different style that they each chose themselves to suit their own taste.  All their jewelry was different, too!  So cool!

My cousin , the mother of the bride, and her husband invited everyone over for a huge brunch feast the next morning, then Mom and I left on our road trip to Alexandria, LA to visit my sister and brother-in-law for 4 days, then on to San Antonio TX where my Mom and brother live.  I stayed with Mom for a week and flew home to Lake Zurich, IL which is Northwest of Chicago.

See a couple of pictures from the wedding below...

The backdrop for the ceremony

The guests on the grooms side waiting

The bride and her father

Two pastors and the groom, and the grooms father in back

The ceremony with the brides' sister(the matron of honor), another bridesmaid in left front.  The brides bouquet was tangerine flowers in a beautiful tight nosegay. See the photo of the bride at top.

One couple in wedding party exiting after ceremony ends.

And finally my entry at The Artist's Playroom called "Three A Day" done on my IPod Touch 5 with the ArtRage app.

Our theme from Jennifer Mclean this week is "fruit".  Many times these three fruits are the ones I try to have everyday.  Have a great day!    gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Unmasking"

Today I am sending a pastel that I just finished on over to the February challenge offered on Ria Hills' site called "Shoot and Paint".  Every month Ria and her artist buddy Pamela White Murphy post one of their photographs and invite you to paint them in your own style.  Here is my pastel of the challenge photo.

Click on image to enlarge.

It is on Canson Mi-Tientes Pastel Paper and is 16"H x 12"W.

I will be offering it next week for auction on the Daily Paintworks or you can email me with questions.