Hydrangea Harmony

Hydrangea Harmony
12 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$550
Here's my latest painting. A smaller version of one I've done before from a favorite photo ,but executed with a totally different process.

Below is the progression of steps from start to the finished painting above.

Initial drawing

On easel with photo

Start massing in the darkest shape

Then the next darkest shape

Then the next value, the shadows of the flowers

Added the background as another value slightly darker than the flower shadows

Finally massed in the lightest shapes

The original reference I was working from. Adjusted things a bit for compositional purposes.

Piaget Roses

Piaget
16 x 20 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

First larger still life of the new year. Went to the flower wholesaler to get some lovely fresh roses on a cold winters day and set them up in my studio. The set up is pictured below.

Rose Study 1
8 x 10 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello
$250

 

A little warm up study before starting on a larger rose painting this week.

Peony Passion

Peony Passion
16 x 16  Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

The first painting of 2016. "Peony Passion"  is a painting I began in December, trying a new approach I'd been exposed to in a workshop.  I did one flower in this manner in the workshop and a small study but wanted to try a larger painting just to reinforce the learning from the workshop.

Very different from my usual more direct, "alla prima" approach, this one was started with a board covered in grey gesso ( actually a gessoboard panel that is on top of a 2 inch deep  frame for a gallery wrap type effect- you can buy these pre-made in the art supply store).

After that I painted out the darkest shapes with a black acrylic underpainting, then added the lightest shapes with a white acrylic underpainting. so the net effect is all the midtones are the original grey showing thru. This is sometimes referred to as a grisalle- a monochromatic value pattern underpainting.

Once that all dried, I started developing the flower starting with a petal and then moving to adjacent petals. The first pass was still not quite where I wanted it so I  waited till the first layer was dried and then applied another layer of paint over the whole painting. I added a few leaves and suggestion of some others for a simple background and added a few touches of the stamen colors for a bit of detail.

I'm glad I went thru the effort to try this approach. I have to say it's not as much fun for me as the more direct method ( which requires less patience and more immediate gratification), but I do like the effect of light. It does force you to slow down and compare shapes of value relative to one another. So while I might not "convert" over to this approach, there are things I've learned that I believe I can integrate into a more direct approach. And it's always good to have options on how to approach the next painting challenge.