Waterford

Waterford
16 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$650

Bought some fresh peonies at the local grocery store the other day. I've painted this type of flower before, but not very often from life. They are quite challenging because it's easy to get caught up in the hundreds of petals, so it's important to simplify. Try to get the big patterns of light and shadow, the overall structure and a few of the distinctive petals so you capture the essence.

In reality, flowers are changing by the moment, especially if you have them under  a direct light in the studio, so if you miss a few petals, it really doesn't matter. Capturing the spirit of the flower is what's important.

Today is the end of my "30 in 30" challenge where I committed to myself that I'd paint every day during June and complete 30 paintings. The results: I did paint every day. Completed 30 oils and 3 small watercolor postcards which I did while out of town at a conference.  I have been posting them all pretty much as I've gone along.  Still have a few more that haven't been posted yet, but if you want to see the month's work you can see them on my dailypaintworks gallery

You might think since I'm a professional artist I already paint every day. Truth is on an average week I paint about 4 days. Between teaching, family commitments, travel and other projects and appointments, there are days that I do not devote to painting. This month, while my husband was away on a trip and I had no classes to teach, I thought, no excuses why not take on the challenge. Still there were days when I had to get up extra early or stayed up late or took my watercolors on a trip where I was at conference from 8:30am-9pm and still managed to get my brushes going at some point each day, just to keep my word to myself. It often takes being unreasonable to honor your word to yourself. ( It sometimes seems to be easier to honor your word to others before honoring your word to yourself - do you find that too?)

They say where there's a will, there's a way and I believe that. I was recently introduced to the distinction between being interested in something and being committed. When you are interested in something, you will do what's convenient. When you are committed to something, you'll do whatever it takes.
Might be a useful inquiry, not only when it comes to art, but all areas of life.

Is there any area that you could choose to upgrade from being interested in to being committed to?