Garden Roses

In honor of 2014 marking my 20th year of painting, I am having a special thank you anniversary sale on Saturday Dec 6, 1-5pm at my studio in Atlanta. If you are in the area and would like to attend please contact me with your email address and I'll send the details. For those of you who are not in the Atlanta area or are not available on Saturday I am extending the sale on-line from 5pm Friday 12/5 thru 5pm Saturday 12/6. 20% off all available oils and 50% off all available watercolors. To see a broad selection of what may be available visit my Daily Paintworks gallery.                      

Garden Roses
12 x 16 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello
$650

I had done a small painting of this grouping of flowers a few years ago, but recently came upon the original photo again and couldn't resist revisiting this inspiration. This time did a 12 x 16 and emphasized more of the feeling of these flowers emerging from the garden.


One of the things I've been working on is integrating more grey tones in my paintings. I'm mixing up a large batch of grey before I start painting and then include it in my shadows and other places where I want to tone  down the vibrancy so I can emphasize the vibrant colors in other areas by contrast.

I recently did a study of greys pictured below. I took 5 differnt grey combinations( mostly complementary pairs) and then mixed a bit with white, and made a slightly warmer and slightly cooler version then mixed those families of grey with 29 other colors on my palette and then added white to each one. I haven't calculated how many greyed colors those amount to- but it felt like a lot while doing this study. It's on and 18 x 24 canvas panel to give you an idea. I have it out in my studio and before I et started painting I look to see if there's a particular grey combination that seems best suited to the overall color harmony of my scenes and then prepare some of that before I get going. Since working with more greys is a new habit for me, I'm being intentional about being prepared ahead of time so I don't fall back into old ways.

I find as I am exploring new directions in painting , I can focus on making one ore 2 changes at at time and integrating those into my process. Will keep you posted on my learnings in this area.

My study of greyed mixtures