Birthday Wishes!

Birthday Wishes!
12 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
 $650

Today is my birthday  and what better day to announce a brand new service I'm offering starting in 2017- "Forever Birthday Bouquets". In the spirit of my "Forever Bridal Bouquets", you can now commission a floral painting including the favorite flowers of a loved one. Unlike the wedding flowers where there is an existing bouquet that I can recreate from a photo, for this type of painting there may not be a fresh bouquet  to serve as inspiration, so I will create a bouquet arrangement on canvas that includes a favorite flower or flowers, favorite colors and can even include elements like a special vase or family heirloom if you supply those photos.  

This painting is an example I did for myself with my own favorite flowers, blue and white hydrangeas and white roses with a white ranunculus in a blue and white china vase. What are your favorites? Does your wife, mother daughter, husband, best friend have a special kind of flowers they absolutely love? I can customize an painting with whatever types of flowers, colors and containers that might be favorites of your loved one.

Fresh flowers are lovely, but they don't last very long. This birthday or anniversary gift can be one that lasts a lifetime and is a constant reminder of your love.

Please contact me for a complimentary design session if you may be interested. Prices start at $300 and vary by size. Please allow 4 weeks advance notice for painting, drying and shipping time.

Love you to the Moon and Back!

"Love you to the Moon and Back!"
9 x 12 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
N/A

My latest bridal bouquet painting. An all white bouquet of daisies and hydrangeas was challenging, but I painted it in an impressionistic fashion with hints of warm colors in the light and cool colors in the shadows. Put in some pops of turquoise in the background, to be a subtle reminder of the colors of the wedding room decor.

Bridesmaid Bouquet

Bridesmaid Bouquet
8 x 8 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
N/A

I've been painting bridal bouquets for a number of years, but this is my first  bouquet painting for a bridesmaid. This one was a gift for my niece who was a bridesmaid in my brother's wedding earlier this year. The bouquet was rounded grouping of brightly colored gerber daisies set against white hydrangeas.

To learn more about my "Forever Bouquet Paintings" click here.

Dark Horse Encounter

Dark Horse Encounter
12 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
SOLD

This couple first met at the Dark Horse Tavern in Atlanta and have now been married for several years. Their mom commissioned me to paint their initial meeting place. I called it "Dark Horse Encounter". 

Mom teared up when I delivered the finished painting in December. 

After giving it on Christmas Day, she shared" Your painting was a super hit, Pat. I cannot thank you enough. You made our day."

It's a complete joy to create art that allows people to express their love in a unique, meaningful and lasting way.

Holiday Greetings!

Holiday Greetings!
8 x 10 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$300

Best wishes to you and all those who you hold dear for a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a 2017 filled with love, good health and lots of fun!

Landon at the Beach

Landon at the Beach
8 x 10 Oil Painting
By Pat Fiorello
N/A
 

I don't often include people in my paintings, but couldn't resist painting this scene of one of my own grandsons, Landon, during his first trip to the Florida coast this fall for his first birthday.   I gave it to his family for Christmas. Hope portraying a special experience will bring back happy memories for years to come.

Beauty of the Season

"Beauty of the Season"
9 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$425

 


While we have the benefit of beautiful seasonal decorations around, I created a painting to celebrate the "Beauty of the Season".  The painting was inspired by  floral arrangements seen at the Christmas at Callanwolde holiday event in Atlanta. Photo below.

Juliet & Silver II

Juliet & Silver II
16 x 20 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

I did a version of this still life a few weeks back when I had these lovely Juliet Roses on hand. The background on that one was a lighter white, silvery tone and I was curious to see how it might look with a warmer background, so revisited this subject again.

Below is the original version.  I like them both, but leaning more towards the warmer version. What do you think?  Interesting how changing one element can alter a painting so much. And now I'm thinking- what if I went with a really dark dramatic background??? Every painting spurs lots more possibilities.

Blue and Yellow Make Green

"Blue and Yellow Make Green"
8 x 8 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello
SOLD

I usually like to have flowers be the central focus of my still life paintings, but for this one I started with a lemon and looked to add some other simple shapes and colors. I also found a lime and then selected the blue glass vase which I've had  on my "still life prop shelf" for awhile, but never painted before.

Without the flowers these other objects can look pretty static, so I dragged my brush out in places to add some energy and unity to the painting.

The set up

Sweet Memories

"Sweet Memories"
11 x 14 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
 SOLD

This is my latest bridal bouquet en route to a bride in Washington D.C.  Roses, ranunculus, lisianthus all soft and delicate. I typically do not include much, if any, of the bouquet handle, but in this case the handle was wrapped in lace from her mom's wedding dress so it had special meaning and memories.

This was a gift from Ambers in-laws. I previously created a bouquet for their daughter when she got married a few years back and they wanted to have one created for their son and his wife as well.

If you are interested in a custom painting to express your love in a beautiful and lasting way, please contact me for a complimentary design session where we can discuss your ideas and come up with something special.

Juliet & Silver

Juliet & Silver
16 x 20 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

Haven't been posting much lately since I've been working on a number of commissions which are surprise holiday gifts so I can't make them public for awhile, but I did take a break from those this past week and bought some beautiful David Austin Juliet roses to do a still life. 

Photo of the still life set up in my studio

Close up of these amazing flowers

Best wishes to all for a Happy Thanksgiving!
 Thank you for your continued interest and support of my art-filled journey.

Hydrangea Lesson in Oils

Hydrangea Lesson
9 x 12 oil painting
$395


Had a private student here in my studio this week wanting to learn how to paint flowers. This relatively straightforward approach which I first learned from Hedi Moran at the Scottsdale Artist's School is a good place to start. Block in shapes loosely with transparent colors, then build form with opaques. After the first stage, the painting looks pretty garish since you use only transparent colors and no white, but then as you move into the second phase things start to come together.

This is the method I share in my "Painting Flowers Alla Prima Workshop in Oils". The next workshop will be in March of 2017 at the Kudzu Art Zone in Norcross, GA.

Below are the steps along the way to the finished painting.

Peony Surprise

Peony Surprise
123 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello



Been away several weeks and happy to be getting back to my studio these past couple of days. To get "re-booted" I decided to treat myself to some special flowers from Cut Flowers a wholesaler in Atlanta.

I went in looking for white roses but to my surprise and delight they had peonies which I didn't expect to see this time of year (they can get them, but usually by special order).

Below are some of the steps start to finish as well as reference photos. The flowers changed a lot over 24 hours as you can see in the last shot.

Love, Laughter and Happily Ever After

Love, Laughter and Happily Ever After
12 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

Here's my latest bridal bouquet painting commissioned by a young man in Iowa to give as a special gift to his wife for their first anniversary.

Here's what he shared after he surprised his wife with this painting:

"Pat, I gave my wife the painting and she was absolutely blown away by it.  She couldn’t believe the amount of detail in the painting and how accurate it was to her bouquet. She is excited to have it displayed in our home forever and have it be a constant reminder of our wedding day. She has continuously mentioned that her bouquet was one of her favorite parts of the entire wedding, so I am glad she now has something that can remind her of that forever.

 Again, I can’t thank you enough for helping making this 1^st anniversary very memorable for us".

I went through many photos from the wedding looking for the best view of the bouquet to serve as inspiration for the painting.  After seeing the photo's you almost feel like you were there for the wedding.  I really enjoy being part of creating a surprise gift for someone.

If you are interested in a bridal or anniversary gift for someone special, please contact me. You can learn more at http://patfiorello.com/wedding_bouquet.html.

Pomegranates in the Sun

Pomegranates in the Sun
9 x 12 Watercolor

Experimented with a different approach for this watercolor to simplify the complexity of all those leaves. Laid warm colors in wet into wet. While the paint was still wet started bringing in some suggestion of the foliage with softer edges, then let things dry and added a few hard edges where needed.  Towards the end it got more abstract, forgetting about the leaves and just adding dark accents where needed. A fun and loose approach.

44th Annual Dunwoody Home Tour

 October 5, 9:30-3pm

For a number of years I've had the honor of being the official artist for the Dunwoody Home Tour. The tour benefits the Dunwoody Women's Club, a non-profit organization that provides a broad range of volunteer services to the community.

Each year I paint the homes on the tour and they are given as a thank you gift to the participating homeowners. Here are the beautiful homes on the tour this year. If you are interested in attending, you can learn more at this site.

Peony Garden

"Peony Garden"
12 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

Was fortunate to be able to visit the New York Botanical Garden last spring during the time the peonies were popping out.  Had some photo's and took some artistic license to zoom in and rearrange the flowers a bit. Just for fun!

Red or white?

Red or White?
11 x 14 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$550

 Put some finishing touches on a painting started as a demo in last week's Painting Flowers Alla Prima workshop which I taught in Norcross, GA. Shared the transparent underpainting method with my students.  Below are some photos of the set up, the first stage of laying in the composition with transparent oil paints and then starting to build the form of he flowers with more opaque paints
( see example featuring the red rose below).   I initially had a warm neutral background in but later changed it to the cool dark green to have the reds look redder by contrast with the green complement.

The set- up

Beginning to block in the flowers with transparent colors

Setting the stage with transparent underpainting

After base of transparent paints, begin adding opaques on top- see red rose

Still work in process, but able to demonstrate how to handle a red rose, a white rose and glass vase  for students.