Gloria J Zucaro's "Jenn's Valentine"

12" x 12" square Original Oil on Canvas panel.

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Click on image to enlarge

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I am posting my painting today to Jennifer Mclean's challenge of the week  for The Artists Playroom, which is Valentine themed.  This will also be my early post to Paint Party Friday.  I may try to get my Diva challenge done, too and post to "I am the Diva".  I painted a still life today in what is a contemporary impressionistic style.  I had placed a stem with multiple flowers on it in my Belleek vase.  I had some Lindt Chocolate Truffles, so put them on the table.  I hope you enjoy my painting and your Valentine's day.

5"H x 8"W

Colored paper, Spray Ink, Glitter Paint, Gel Pen, Rhinestones

I am participating in Carolyn Dube's "Use Your Words" on-line workshop.  This was a funny

mess because I did not have a stencil and the Cricut die-cut machine I have does not have the silhouette feature to make stencils so I thought I would just spray over the letters I cut out. But I already had a black background with a white heart. The red did not show up on the black when I sprayed the ink. So then I tried gold glitter spray, well that was a little better, but blew the letters away! So I just used white gel pen around the misplaced letters and then added a little 3 piece strip of rhinestones to the heart. I wrote my journaling with the white gel pen, but it picked up the red ink and came out pink!  The reason I picked the word "pain" is because I have been going for physical therapy on my neck and shoulders for the last three weeks.  It is just arthritis, which is what happens when you get old!  LOL!

Gloria J Zucaro's "In A Nest Of Leaves"

8"H x 8"W Original Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

$55.00 Framed in Floater 
To Purchase- PayPal Through Daily Paintworks

This is my little bird figurine from my sister-in-law.  He is sweetly seated in a little pile of leaves. I again use orange and aqua as my choices for a crisp Fall day.  

Gloria J Zucaro's "Rainbow Pear"

7"H x 5"W Oil on Canvas Sheet

Click to enlarge for more detail

$35.00 On Daily Paintworks Auction

Enjoying learning about Contemporary as opposed to Traditional  Impressionism in Ann Feldman's  class.  This is really fun to do! 

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Clearing Coffee Pot"

11"H x 9"W Original Pastel on Sanded Paper.

$65.00 Unframed Email Me  or go to Ebay

I painted this pastel while at The Clearing in Ellison Bay, WI.  It is an old pewter coffee pot on a stand that they had in the dining room up on top of a cabinet.  I love the shape and design of the metal stand and lid.  This is my entry for Paint Party Friday.  Happy PPF!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Silent Moon"

8"H x 8"W original Oil     $105.00  Framed

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                                   To Purchase, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com                                             

I had fun with this one by under-painting with acrylic gold glitter paint which shows through in selected areas. This cat that has a glittery surface is one of my Halloween decorations, as are my Fall leaves that are edged with glitter.   I needed something else in the upper left corner, especially because the cat appeared to be looking at something.  I really liked the moon.  I hope you do too!  

Gloria J Zucaro's "Shadow Cat"

6"H x 6"W Oil on Raymar Panel

$95.00 in Floater Frame
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I love this little stack of a carved-look pumpkin, black cat and a crow.  It was sitting on my kitchen windowsill for the month of October.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Fall Flavors"

 8"H x 8"W Original Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

$105.00 Framed    S&H to your ZIP
To Purchase, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com

The Pantone color of the year for 2012 is "Tangerine Tango"  I happen to love orange...red, ...yellow, aqua.  Ah well, I digress!   So I will be doing more paintings with ORANGE!

Gloria J Zucaro's " California,Mexico & Brazil"

12"H x 16"W Original Pastel , Framed Under Glass, Double Matted

The Daily Paintworks site is having a challenge donating the proceeds of all sales to The Help the Children of Africa Challenge.  You can find this painting on the DPW auction site under that challenge.   Starting bid $100.  Free shipping. 

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Fairy Godmother"

11.75"H x 9"W Original Oil on Black Canson Paper

Unframed 

This painting is for sale in the Daily Paintworks auction site for the Challenge, "Every Mother Counts".

All proceeds from the sale will go to Heather Armstrong's(aka Dooce) Team.

I am starting the bid at $50.00 plus actual shipping to your location.

I was ready to paint this little fairy one morning and realized that I didn't have a canvas available in the size I wanted, so just decided to paint her on a piece of my black Canson pastel paper.  I think the dark background really sparks up her vibrant colors.

Gloria J Zucaro's "Awe Nuts!"

5"H x 7"W Original Oil  $95.00 Framed in plain black floater frame

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To Purchase, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com

  Another one of my lunches!  This day I really ran out of time and put a handful of mixed nuts in a Ziploc sandwiche bag and ran.  I decided to use them as my still life...before I ate them for lunch!

Gloria J Zucaro's "Blue Glass Lemon"

8"H x 8"W Original Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

$100.05 Framed in plain black Floater Frame
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To Purchase, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com
                 

I went to Costco to get some things for a luncheon at my house with girlfriends.  One friend drinks tea, so I bought a bag of lemons.  What was I thinking!  I got 5lbs of lemons and as it turned out she didn't even have tea that day!  So I am thinking I am going to have to make homemade lemonade...humm, I think I need a 5lb bag of sugar! 

Gloria J Zucaro's "String Cheese Salad"

7"H x 5"W Original Oil 

$95.00    Framed in black floater frame

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To Purchase, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com  

Here is another one of my Summer lunches.  I always have some string cheese available for my 3 year old grandson Enzo when he comes over.  So if I am in a hurry, it is great to grab some cherry tomatoes, the cheese and a little shake of salt on the tomatoes for a quick snack.  I love my salt and pepper set that were handcrafted with wire and blue & red  glass drops.

My Hands Challenge "Just Twiddling My Thumbs"

8"H x 10"W Original Oil on Raymar Panel

$75.00 Unframed

I finally got around to having someone take a picture of my hands, yesterday, while I was twiddling.  Today I got the painting done, instead of just sitting around twiddling my thumbs.  When I am sitting waiting for a train with 189 cars to pass, I twiddle.  When I am in a lecture situation and am not supposed to participate or ask questions, I twiddle.  My daughter said I am the only one she has even seen do the twiddle!

Gloria J Zucaro's " Egg Cup"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil On Raymar Panel

SOLD

      This painting is shown in the October 2011 issue of Southwest Art magazine

An exercise in white, reflecting the red background fabric and the cool light from the windows.  I love eggs!  They seem to have a personality and are versatile and willing to pose for you in any situation.

Gloria J Zucaro's "French Bread & Brie"

6"H x 6"W Original Oil on Raymar Panel

SOLD

  There is no wine here because I had this delicious meal for breakfast, although I could have included my cup of espresso in the painting! 

The Limited Stroke Challenge- "A Real Lemon!" Study #2

Study#2

In my second painting, I wanted to try to use even less strokes.  I tried for half of the 25 aiming for 13.  So instead of doing the blue bottle in 2 pieces of blue and pieces of light blue and yellow, I painted the bottle cobalt in all one stroke, using a lot of paint mixed with mineral spirits.  Then I added the light blue reflection and the reflection from the yellow over the transparent blue. So instead of using 4 strokes on the bottle, I used three.  For the shadow behind the bottle, which had some light in it from light coming through the bottle, I mixed the basic shadow color and then added a little more blue because I thought it was too brown.  A happy accident happened and the blue which was not thoroughly mixed on my brush made the effect of a light shining through the bottle, all in one stroke.  That effect had taken me three strokes the first time around.  Two for the two different colors and one to correct the value.   I did the lemon in three stokes instead of 4 the second time. The biggest save on strokes was in the background and foreground.  I mixed a lot of very liquid paint and did both the background in two strokes opposed to 3 and foreground in one stroke instead of two.  I also left out the more minor highlights on the bottle.  I used a #10 (worn) flat for this study, also saving more strokes.

Now if you are not a painter, please don't look at the drawing aspect!  I know that my bottle is lopsided in both studies and that the lemon is very sharp-nosed!  Those things were not the object of the challenge.

The Limited Stroke Challenge- "A Real Lemon!" Study #1

Study#1

This challenge was really fun and a great learning tool. The object to use as few strokes as possible to do a very simple painting.  If you lift the brush off the surface, your stroke is done.  I had learned from a wonderful artist,Diane Rath, who recently died of cancer, about loading your brush fully and smoothly using your whole arm to move the brush up and down (with darks, to lower the reflection) and side to side (with lights to catch more light reflection) in one easy stroke.  I did the challenge twice.  The first time I allowed myself 25 strokes.  I was able to complete the first challenge in 23 strokes initially.  I used the extra two strokes to go over the two areas to darken them.  I used a # 6 worn down flat brush for this first study(edges had rounded down quite a bit).

Gloria J Zucaro's "Thirsty Bird"

16"H x 8"W Oil on Canvas panel.

$135.00 Framed

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 This faucet with it's beautiful rust and corrosion was from a photograph that I chose from Frankie's Johnson's selections at the workshop at The Clearing.  We picked either the faucet or an old barn door to paint for studying texture, and then added our own items to complete the scene.  The little bird that I placed under the faucet is a gift from my sister-in-law whose beautiful package I painted in "The Present" challenge on the Daily Paintworks site.

Gloria J Zucaro's "So Succulent"

12"H x 9"W Original Oil 

$120.00 Framed

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To Purchase, email me at Gloria@gloriajzucaro.com

When deciding what to paint one day at the studio I noticed this very nice set-up of pots with artificial cacti.  I rearranged it to be a little tipsy and from more of a birds-eye view.  I love the colors and shapes!

Gloria J Zucaro's "POLKA-DOT DOLLS"

8"H x 8"W  Original Oil on Raymar Canvas Panel

Framed $95.00 in plain black wooden frame.

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To Purchase,email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com

Object to create "wall paper" with polka-dots, whether subdued, small in size or vibrant and varied in size.  Here I used a set of vintage plastic doll house furniture as my still life set-up.