Plein Air Painting

The Rose Garden
12 x 16 Watercolor Painting
by Pat Fiorello

Taught a plein air workshop at the lovely Smith Gilbert Gardens in Kennesaw, GA yesterday. The weather was ideal for painting outdoors- not too hot, not too cold, a nice breeze, sunny.  They have a beautiful rose garden with over 100 varieties of roses.

This was my demo painting from the morning. Painting all those greens was definitely a challenge. Also wanted the light peach-orange roses in the front to be more of the focal point, so it posed a challenge to have that remain the star and not be overpowered by the trellis with the red roses.  Of course I could have eliminated the trellis or changed the colors of the roses to something less prominent, but I wanted to see what it would take to make it work. With gardens you have to simplify, simplify simplify- even more than a traditional landscape scene. I think next time I will simplify even more.

Below are some photo's of the rose garden area as well as some of the students painting under the shade of a big old tree looking out to the rose garden area.

I'm going back to teach another one day workshop in September, so if you'd like to join us for some fun next time, please contact me at patfiorello@aol.com and I'll email you some additional details. Students of all levels and any mediums welcome. If you've never painted outdoors before and want to give it a try, this is a great location since it is a manageable size and not very crowded, especially during the week yet has lots of  interesting subject matter for painting.