Gloria J Zucaro's "Tracy & Her Demented Friends!"

Another surprise!  A package arrived from Tracy Delisle.  In it was an abundance of fun!  A wonderful "Nevermore" plaque.  I love ravens, crows and other blackbirds.  But especially Ravens for Halloween.  I think she thought that "Demented" was missing his other friends in Delisle Land so she sent along Mister Raven to keep him company.  There was a little easel to rest Mr. Raven upon and I quickly put him up by "Demented".  They are a happy pair.  Some other special additions to the package were candies of all types, two glow-in-the-dark skellies, and some Dracula teeth for me to use on my still-human friends!

On Wednesday morning I took a "Chalk Paint by Annie Sloan" class at "Tattered Tiques" in Barrington.  What a great welcome was given to all the class-takers!  A goodie bag with notepad, pen, paint brush, decorated clothespin clip, a paint chart, a postcard from the store telling about Fall specials, a detailed handout of instructions to help us after we got home.some peppermints, some script in French for adding to possible painted pieces a picture frame, and 4 other pieces of raw wood for practicing the Chalk Painting techniques on while in class. 

This was the frame I picked.  It was just your ordinary medium brown wooden frame.  But we did a two color process on it and then distressed it and waxed it.  

It looks so cool now, a little "beachy".

The orange piece also got  orange Chalk Paint and two different types of wax, clear and dark. You can see the difference above.

This piece was the typical traditional 1970"s or 80"s gilt frame with ornate carvings.  Since many people no longer like that style of picture frame anymore, we did a one-step plus wax process to tone it down.  Doesn't it look neat!?

The last piece of raw wood is oak.  Oak has a nice grain so we did a one step process called "liming".

As you can see, I started to write my name on the wrong side.

Below is my first attempt at paper collage from Karen Sako's class.  I really enjoyed adding all the paper pieces to my moon and crow.

Up close view of papers

The 6" x 6" whole

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday, and Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook.

Have a great week,

Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Quoth The Raven"

8"H x 10"W Original oil on board.

purchase through Daily Paintworks Auction

Bids starting at $65.00

This week Carol Marine gave us the "Birdbrain Challenge".  Her bird is a gull.  But since I did a gull for Ria Hill's "Shoot and Paint" challenge earlier this year, and Carol said we could paint hers or any other bird of our choosing, I chose this raven.  I think it is great for this time of year, with Halloween coming up.  I used an already textured board.  Frequently I use the leftover paint on my palette to pre-treat another board for future use. This board was completely dry.  It had some oranges and other colors on it, but I wanted it toned completely red-orange so went over it with Cad Red Medium before starting this painting  I know some people think ravens/crows are spooky or evil, but I love them.  I feel they are somehow primal and they have always attracted my interest.  I feel the same way about geese as they fly South on a cloudy and chilly Fall day.  It gives me the shivers and I too have a longing to fly!

I am also posting this for Paint Party Friday.  Please check both sites to see what other artists have been doing this past week.