Gloria J Zucaro's "The Latest Endeavors"

Today's' post includes more of my tree series as well as two collage paintings done with Karen Sako in her mini-workshop.  On two consecutive Saturdays our group had a lot of fun making our own papers and then using Karen's references to each come up with a completely different design with a variety of mediums to seal and glaze, and using acrylic paints, inks, and pastels with various tools to add texture.

Number 23

Number 24

Number 25

First Collage with Karen Sako

Second Collage with Karen Sako

Already framed as you can see! :>)

I am linking with Paint Party Friday , The Artist Playroom, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Gloria J Zucaro's "This One's For Dave"

My fellow artist friend, Dave Haley, always asks me to put some sky holes in my trees.  For some reason I usually hate to break up my dark trees with bits & pieces.  This week I decided to pacify him with paintings Numbers 21 & 22.  I also did those two trees in my series without any smoothing with my fingers, I only used other pastels to blend colors together.  If you missed my Facebook post last week or was it the week before(!) I did two paintings that week but didn't post on my blog.  That Thursday I had the movers come take out some furniture, many paintings and most of my mixed media supplies to get ready to "stage" my house for putting on the market. This week I am having my townhouse painted to freshen everything, then window washing is next and finally carpet cleaning.  

As far as my shoulders, I saw the surgeon and will be having shoulder replacement at the end of this year or in January. The other shoulder will need to be done at a later date. So now it is just procedures leading up to that.  Now that it is a definite go-ahead, I just want to GO-AHEAD!

Here are my last few pastel paintings in chronological order from the end of September until today.  I am posting this to Paint Party Friday, Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, And The Artist's Playroom.  Have a great week and keep on creating!

"A Gray Day Over Lake Zurich"

Number 19

Number 20

Number 21

Number 22- For Dave

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 " Long Gone"

I have been away at a CREATE workshop in Lisle,IL, and have been busy sorting, organizing, giving away, and selling my household items.  I am getting my house ready to sell.  I will be downsizing into a ranch hopefully by the end of this year.  I also may have to have shoulder replacement surgery, so am trying to do as much as I can now.  Hence, my absence from the daily art endeavors.  I have still done some more in my series, and enjoyed my four days a the CREATE convention.  I took 4 classes with Roann Mathias, about journal making/book binding and vintage alphabets.  I also took a wonderful class with Mary Beth Shaw doing abstract paintings in acrylic.  I actually met Carolyn Dube of "A Colorful Journey" fame!  She was so friendly and fun, what a treat!  This will be posted to Paint Party Friday, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

Except for an occasional addition to my series, I won't be posting very often for awhile.

Number 16 in my Series

First Day Create  We painted our own large papers with ink and watercolor, cut them into page sizes and bound them into a journal with twine and beads.  I had some problems with the binding!  We also did woven fronts with paper pieces or ribbons.  We didn't have time to embellish the inside, but I show some of my painted pages.

Evening Class on Vintage Alphabets

We learned about identifying the characteristics of different alphabets, traced some, then did some freehand.

Second Day Create.  We worked on a 12" x 9" store bought journal.  We were to gesso the front cover and several inside pages and the back cover.  However, the gesso took forever to dry, so we didn't get very far for a 6 hour class.  Front and Back Covers and the start of one inside page.

                      

Front Cover,painted with acrylic,stamps                                          Back Cover

First Inside Page, paint, cut-outs,tape,transfer

Third Day Create.  We did two mini journals.  One accordion pleated, and one bound.  I had trouble with that again because I made the bound journal too tight and it can't close with the embellishments in it!

First is the Front Cover, then some embellished pages using my own stash, then a page shown before embellishment.  The little book is only 2 inches square when closed(if you can get it closed)! All pictures on this post may be clicked on to enlarge.

    

A page without embellishment.

Create Day 4.  My abstract painting class in acrylics with Mary Beth Shaw.  Four Paintings.

Finally, the END!  Thank you for looking!

Gloria J Zucaro's "The Series So Far"

I can not figure out how to get these to group next to each other in rows of three nicely!  HELP!

and then # 15 below.