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Thursday, September 24, 2015

Gloria J Zucaro's "Bake"

I will be taking another wonderful workshop next week with nationally known artist and instructor Richard McKinley. This workshop is through The Chicago Pastel Painters and is "en Plein Air" 
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air".

I don't do Plein air painting very often, because of having to carry all the necessary supplies and my arthritis.  But this is a huge opportunity for learning and what fun!

Today I am sharing another Taos inspired piece called "Bake". 
It is a 9"x 12"Pastel Painting on sanded La Carte paper. 
I picked the title because of the dessert heat in the summer, the baked earth Adobe buildings and the adobe oven on the far right side in the painting.  

I am linking to Paint Party Friday, so pay them a visit.

Have a wonderful week, I love Fall!  And thanks for stopping by! :>)



Friday, September 18, 2015

Gloria J Zucaro's "Experimenting with Abstract"

Last weekend I had fun at Mainstreet Art Centre in a workshop with artist Debora Stewart.  Debora was originally a representational aristt but decided about 10 years ago that she loved abstract.  She has been experimenting and learning and achieving wonderful paintings in abstract form since then.  Her workshop was learning about under painting with compressed charcoal, acrylic or watercolor and smearing the charcoal with alcohol before applying more pastel or acrylic for your painting.  I was working with pastel.
In our first exercise we were to use photos of different subjects and a viewfinder to find an abstract area in the photo to paint.  I picked a cityscape. My first two paintings were very tight and not really very much fun.  See below-  Also they curled after I untaped them, hence the curved looking lines! They were done on UArt pastel paper that had a sanded surface for pastels.  I drew the design in charcoal and then added a light , medium and dark value of soft pastel.



Then I began to loosen up.
Below is one of my abstracts that "passed muster" with Debora.  It has a really good dark value to anchor it.


I did about 10 paintings in the three days, and about two were considered successful.  As a representational artist, I will be able to have an abstract background and then put my representational painting over it in a more relaxed version.  So for me a really great experience to learn about shapes and colors in their own right.

I am posting this to Paint Party Friday.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

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

Thursday, September 3, 2015

Gloria J Zucaro's "Storm Brewing"

Wow!  I can't believe how long I have been out of the loop!  Well, I have enjoyed some gardening, some travel, some movies and restaurants.  But I have been painting ,too.  

This painting came out exactly as I envisioned it, so I am very happy with it. It is from a reference photo I took out West.
I am not sure whether it is in Arizona or New Mexico.  I love both the areas around Tucson and Taos.  I also posted a pastel I did of a woman at the Taos Adobe on my FaceBook page today.
Have a wonderful week.

"Storm Brewing"


Pastel 9" x 12"

This will be posted to Paint Party Friday which showcases about 100 artists and their weekly projects.  Stop by and enjoy some really creative work.

For purchase information, email me at gloria@gloriajzucaro.com