Gloria J Zucaro's CJS 2017 with Tori Weyers"

I am finally caught up!  Today I tried an abstract a la Tori Weyers.  I did okay until the ink part, then I messed it up so added some gesso to it and felt it still looked okay.  But I am definitely going to try this again and get it right!

Tori didn't have a spiral journal so her two page spread was more cohesive.  I did photograph each side separately even though they were done at the same time.  

Showing below, going backwards from the final above.

Have a wonderful weekend.  If you could leave me a comment, I would be so happy! :>)

Thanks,

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 "Try It, You'll Like It"

Here is Number 15 in my series.  This week I tried some new techniques for me.  I have been using a thinner non-sanded paper for my series of tree paintings.  Today I decided to use Wallis sanded paper.

I wanted to use a heavier paper and one with more tooth because I was going to block in with my pastels and then use a large paintbrush and water to create an under-painting.  I used my NuPastel bright orange for the sky area and then a dark teal soft pastel(Unison, I believe) for the tree and main landscape areas.  I also used a light aqua soft pastel for the water.  Then I went to the studio clean-up sink and wet my 2" house painting brush with cold water.  I danced it around the tree and in the land. Rinsed my brush, then I did a smoother straight-line stroke across the water area.   Rinsed and did slanted bottom-side and up to the outer corner, strokes over the sky.  I didn't put too much water and painted with the paper flat.  All the pastel remained quite bright.  I had forgotten to tape the paper down because it is in a tablet form.  That meant as it dried it became quite wavy/undulating at first.  But as it continued to dry it straightened out again...Live & learn! :)  I started adding soft pastels over the top of the now dry but lumpy surface.  It was a little difficult to get a flat broad stroke, but eventually after smoothing some of the scratch marks made by the edges of my Terry Ludwig rectangular pastels, it all pulled together.  As usual I thought by looking at my color wheel and choosing a palette of Blue-Green & Red-Orange that is what I would do.  But also as usual I ended up using all kinds of  pinks, burgundy, violet, blues, some greens!!!  I can't seem to restrain myself and stick to a very limited color palette.

Here is the color wheel I was using and some of the pastels.  The soft pastels are in my Plein air box and are the ones I took with me on Saturday for the Plein air demo and paint-out.  To see that post click here.

This is my post for Paint Party Friday.  Please visit the site hosted by Kristen & Eva and see what about 80 different artists have been doing in all different mediums this week.

Have a wonderful week, Gloria

Gloria J Zucaro's "Sunset at Sea" Pastel

My pastel painting today is from a photo by Michael Yates.  He posted it in 2010 to Paint My Photo which is a copyright free site.  I painted this for the Daily Paintworks Challenge of the week.  The challenge was to paint with your non-dominant hand and was suggested by Christine Holzschuh.  I knew when I saw the challenge that I would try a landscape/ seascape.  I had recently had an email from a friend in Hawaii who is an artist on vacation from Illinois.  Lucky her!  We just had some ice, then a downpour of rain and thunder!  Anyway I didn't want to use her photo because she might get really mad at me!  My friend Corrine had told me about Paint My Photo.  I went to their gallery of photos and searched for "Hawaiian sunset".  Believe it or not this was the only one I found with that tag.  I was true to the challenge until the very end when I forgot one time and found myself changing to my right hand to get the mast drawn in as straight as I could.  I quickly switched back to my left hand.  Working with the opposite hand was not easy, and I have a stiff neck from holding my body in a different direction.  But other than that I found I could accommodate to it.  Maybe my brain grew a little? Ya think?!

Click on image to enlarge....SOLD

16"w x 12"H on Canson Mi-Tientes Pastel Paper.

To Purchase 

Gloria J Zucaro's "Evening In Door County"

Well, I am happy to say that my son and his wife finally, after almost a year, sold their townhouse. I helped out a with packing up the smaller items that were used in the staging and taking them to their garage for a garage sale.  The movers took the furniture that was not bought by the buyers or friends in the neighborhood.

For Jenn's challenge this week at The Artist's Playroom-to "paint something you have been thinking about but haven't gotten around to"- I did this sunset from my photo taken while I was up in Door County Wisconsin one Fall.  

I am also entering it and the charcoal portrait below the sunset to Paint Party Friday hosted by Kristin and Eva.  Please try to visit some of these links to see what other artists are working on.

"Evening In Door County"

Original Oil on 10"H x 20"L stretched canvas

$225.00 plus S&H to your ZIP

Click on paintings to enlarge.

First weeks lesson in portrait class 

I have been looking forward to this class with friend and fellow artist Ann Feldman.  She does excellent portraits and says that they are her first love in painting.  But some of you might also know her from her entries into some of the Daily Paintworks challenges or her gallery on that site.  As you can see, the grid for sizing my portrait is still evident.  I think her right eye is a little wonky, but we will correct and then move on to another portrait next week.  Learning something new is the best!

Gloria J Zucaro's " February Florence"

7"H x 5"W x 1 1/2"D

Oil on Gallery wrapped Canvas
SOLD

This painting is the February Challenge at the "A Day Not Wasted" site of Lee Brown who is the photographer.  I enjoyed making each of the buildings an individual.