New Website Released

New website home page

Over the weekend, I just completed and released my "new and improved" website. I have had a website since I began my journey as a professional artist in 2002. Because I teach, I have been pretty good about updating it frequently to add current workshops, news and  images, but over time it's easy to have your site be like a closet where you just keep shoving more stuff in.  I did revamp the look about five years ago when I started painting in oils in addition to watercolors, but have just been making incremental changes since then.

Over the last couple of years, I have really done a lot of work on my art in terms of both developing  my skills and clarifying in my own mind what I want to paint and how I want to paint.  So I thought it was time for a total refresh of my site to reflect where I am today as an artist.

Working with my wonderful webmaster Carolyn Majewski, who has been with me from the very beginning in 2002 and who does an amazing job,  we basically stepped back and did the whole thing from scratch keeping in mind what I wanted to communicate about my art. I also took the opportunity to rewrite my artist statement and bio with the help of friend, writer and fellow artist Judith Schonbak. This was probably the hardest and most time- consuming part, to try to distill down everything I wanted to say about why, how and what I paint into a few short paragraphs.  But it was very satisfying to come up with something that reflects where I am today and feels authentic about what I want to express.

Selecting the paintings was also a challenge. On one hand, I see some sites that post every painting that is available, but often they feel cluttered, so I chose instead to have fewer  representative examples as a showcase of my work. Instead of grouping by subject matter, regardless of medium (I used to have 5 categories), paintings are now separated into oil and watercolors in two groupings of subject matter- landscapes and florals. Of course that means I couldn't have all of my favorites. Over time I'll have to be disciplined, if I add one, I probably need to take one away (kind of like that closet analogy again).

While it's not something I think you need to do every year, as you grow as an artist and move in new directions, it is important to keep your communication to the public consistent with that direction. It's easy to have the incremental drift and wake up a few years later seeing that what you are communicating is where you were not where you are now.

So I'm pleased to announce  the relaunch of my website:

 www.patfiorello.com

If you have a moment, please take a look and let me know what you think.

 Thanks,

Pat