Gloria J Zucaro's "Something Different"

This week's paintings are a "mixed bag" so to speak.  I have two very different Trees for my series, a painting that was originally done in oil, but I went over it with pastels and sprayed it with hair spray. And finally a pastel I had started and added to in this last week.  These will be posted to Paint Party Friday, my Facebook and Twitter pages, and to Pinterest.  I hope you enjoy them.

I have been making good progress cleaning out many pieces of old or infrequently worn or the wrong size clothing and donating them to Misericordia . Lots of home decor items, jewelry and books, tools and holiday items and I have also gone through drawers and thrown out years of pieces of paper with little notes or addresses now expired.  It feels so good!

My shoulders are no better, but my doctors appointment is coming up in a couple of weeks, so I will know if I need to put my life on hold for a few months of post surgery healing.

Here are this weeks paintings..............................

Number 17, I really like these colors

Number 18, now this is different!

This was an oil painting.  I didn't like it and decided it wouldn't bother me if I ruined it, so just started playing with the pastels.  Not much detail here at all.  After I finished, I sprayed it lightly twice with hairspray as an inexpensive fixative.  It got kind of crinkly looking, but sort of cool! 

I sent this to my sister for her birthday.  She had asked me for a painting for the Fall/Halloween season because they have none.  I sent her two others also of oil paintings of pumpkins and moons and cats.  I hope she enjoys them this Halloween!

And lastly, I added the confetti strings and dashes and dots to this mask pastel I had done before.  It just needed something!

Happy Paint Party Friday.  Go to the party, all are invited!

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Cachepot & Pumpkin"

My post for today is an impressionistic still life with a very pretty and ornate cachepot.  For some extra seasonal interest, I placed a mini-pumpkin next to it, reflecting the same color palette.   It is an original oil painted from life on canvas sheet.  The framed size is approximately 8"H x 5"W. 

Click on image to enlarge.

$65.00  To Purchase-PayPal through Daily Paintworks

Gloria J Zucaro's "Fall Table"

This is another painting that I reworked today.  I am on a roll now!  As time goes along your skills improve as long as you keep practicing and learning.  

Since I didn't post the "before" painting of my "Golden Opportunity"  with the crow and pumpkin, I  will show you this painting previous to changes.  I had a few people who requested seeing both before and after.  I think I will also post this one to Jenn's The Artist Playroom.

Be sure to see what the other participating artists have done this week.

This painting is an original oil on stretched canvas 10"H and 20"L

(and already framed, before I started the redux).

Click on image to enlarge. 

Below is the "Before" somewhat blurry photo.

As you can see, way too much green, too much coolness in temperature.  In my "new" version I added turquoise, violet, red, Alizarin, Caribbean Blue and placed them in more impressionistic strokes. I also added some warm into the background area to merge the top and bottom areas of the painting.                                                  

Gloria J Zucaro's "Seeds of Life"

I am adding this to Jennifer Mclean's Thanksgiving themed challenge this week over at The Artist's Playroom.  I actually did this last year, but it is perfect and I am busy getting ready for Thanksgiving, and for get-togethers with friends and a returning college grandson!  

I used an 18"H statue for my model.  I have an Indian woman, and a male and female Pilgrim, too.  I put the smaller set on my kitchen window sill and the larger on the fireplace mantel.  I have a great big turkey-shaped metal serving tray and sundry gourds and pumpkins around.  

My title relates to the fact that both the seeds of the sunflower and pumpkin may be eaten, and have some protein as well as other nutrients.  And the pumpkin has many ways of being served and feels"substantial" whether soup, breads or muffins, as squash or pie.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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