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| Trumpet Song 6 x 8 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello |
Todays' painting was a joy to paint. ( Yes, not every painting day is perfect, some days are more fun than others and some can be frustrating at times).
I've been working on getting a little more abstract with my florals while still retaining a sense of realism at the center of interest. This was an experiment with that idea. I did several thumbnail sketches of an overall design and flow and had an example of what one trumpet flower looked like for reference, but really had no other references. At first I thought I came up with this from my head, since I was imagining it- it's made up, no real place, photo or still life set up that this was inspired by. But it's probably more accurate to say it came from my heart.
When asked by someone the other day what I loved about flowers I replied , of course the colors and softness, but also the sense of flow. ( Did you ever notice the worked FLOWER contains FLOW?). I love the movement of plants and vines and these trumpet vines hold a special place in my heart. I have memories of connecting with them for the first time on a trip to Tuscany in 2001, when I stayed at a villa that had lots of them all over canopies. I became enchanted with the little bursts of orange color and the dance of the vines. So much so that we added an arbor to our garden here in Atlanta and have trumpet vines covering part of it. There's not much to see this time of year, but in the summer when the orange buds start to pop it is a happy sight.
This is a strong painting with good contrast and lively color. Your commentary is quite inspiring as you helped me to understand why you chose to paint this. I like the concept of having a more abstract background but keeping a center of interest to which I can relate. Do you understand abstract paintings? Can you help me understand them?
ReplyDeleteCarol I'm by no means an expert in abstraction, but I do know a strong realistic painting needs a strong underlying abstract design to help move your eye through a painting. I always encourage my students to do a value sketch to simplify their designs into large masses before starting to paint. That underlying abstract design is the foundation for the painting. I recently read a very good book, Mastering Composition " by Ian Roberts where he addresses this very well. I think for an abstract painting to be strong requires the same design fundamentals as a realistic painting, that there is unity, contrast, repetition with variety, dominance, balance etc..
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