Art & Inspiration from professional artist and instructor Pat Fiorello. Pat is known for her romantic landscape, garden and floral paintings in oil and watercolor. Her paintings often depict beautiful places like Italy and France. Pat teaches painting workshops in the U.S., Caribbean and Europe. She is passionate about inspiring others to include art in their life. Whether creating it or simply appreciating and enjoying it, there are so many ways that art elevates life!
Everything's Coming Up Roses!
12 x 12 Oil Painting
SOLD
"Everything's Coming Up Roses" is one of my recent bridal bouquet paintings. I've painted dozens of bouquets, often as gifts from parents of the bride or groom or a husband to his wife as a special wedding or anniversary gift.
Each bouquet is so different. Some are bold, some are soft and romantic, some are delicate blush tones or even all white. You can see a variety of bouquets at bridalbouquetpaintings.com
This one was a very classic bouquet of exclusively red roses.
The photo I worked from is below.
The best part is seeing the joy on people's faces when they get a surprise gift that is a meaningful keepsake of one of the most special days of their life.
Here's the happy couple who received their painting commissioned by mom and dad for a first anniversary gift.
If you know of someone who might be interested in giving a special gift, please share this with them. More at:. bridalbouquetpaintings.com
Thanks so much for helping me with my mission of using my artwork to spread love!
Wherefore Art Thou?
16 x 20 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
$1600
The other day I shared a painting called "Modern Romance". It was a painting of this bouquet of David Austin Juliet roses but with a simplified background.
The background I set up included a tapestry I bought in Italy. I was a bit intimidated and not sure how to approach painting it but I decided to face my fears and give it a try with this 2nd version of the same scene.
I simplified the tapestry design, but tried to keep the feeling of the scene on the tapestry which had mountains, a lake and columns with flowers. Had to minimize details and keep edges soft so that the tapestry would stay behind the flowers which were the main event. Eventually I eliminated one of the columns in the background as it started getting too busy. The flowers are a little pinker than the real flowers were which were more peachy, but I liked the pink with the greenish tapestry. So decided to leave them as is for this painting.
Below is a photo of the still life set up and steps along the way in completing "Wherefore Art Thou".
It's amazing the difference the background made in the feel. With basically the same exact flowers, "Modern Romance" feels a lot more contemporary while "Wherefore Art Thou" Feels more romantic and old world.
Modern Romance
16 x 6 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
$1200
Recently set up some beautiful Juliet roses for a still life painting. The flowers are pretty complex so I decided to simplify the background at first and just focus on the flowers for this painting. I did a second version afterwards where I included a suggestion of the background tapestry. I will share that one in an upcoming blog post.
Below are some steps along the way in creation of this painting which I call "Modern Romance".
Desdemona
8 x 10 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
$300
This spring I ordered a new type of rose from the David Austin catalog, called Desdemona. It arrived in March and my husband planted it. It's doing well here in the Atlanta weather, but I was surprised when the flowers came out that they were so tiny. See photo below with my thumbnail for scale.
I was envisioning some big, beautiful cup/bowl-like flowers so was a little disappointed at the actual size. I wanted to paint them, so figured I could just make them look the size I had imagined in the painting.
When starting something that seems so complex, you really need to simplify to the major shapes and values. Don't get to the details/small shapes too fast. As one of my favorite artists and teachers, Robert Johnson often says ,"You have to earn your right to paint the petals". Meaning you have to get the structure of the whole painting and the flower first. The petals come later.
Or even better, forget about the idea of painting "petals" altogether. A painting never succeeds because of the tiny details, but because of the big overall shapes and composition. You need to attend to that first. Just like if you're building a house. You need to pour the foundation and put up the walls before you start buying curtains and assembling doorknobs.
A student recently was struggling painting a rose. She was judging herself (incorrectly concluding " I'm not good at painting flowers") and getting very discouraged. My advice to her was focus on the shapes of color/value you see and paint those shapes. Try to turn off your left brain that recognizes and labels everything as a petal, a leaf, a stem, a rose and look for shapes. If you can paint those abstract shapes and put them in the right relationship to one another, you'll paint something that looks familiar to the viewer, the pattern of light and dark shapes we associate with a rose. And they will interpret the spots of color you have put down on the canvas as a rose. You can never paint a real 3 dimensional rose, you can only paint the illusion of how we see a rose on your 2 dimensional canvas or paper.
As probably most artists have to, I had to go through this stage of moving from literal, left -brained thinking ( painting a rose) to artistic thinking ( painting the shapes of color that I see) myself. Many students struggle with this leap and change in thinking, so I cover it in my classes where appropriate. Below is a copy of the material I often share with students to help them transition from a literal reproduction of things to a more painterly creation of a painting with "shapes of color". Hope it is useful for you.
Shifting from literal
thinking to artistic thinking
(left
brained/analytical/intellectual to right brained/visual/spatial)
Which is more interesting, to read a love letter or an
itemized bill?
– Sergei Bongart
Art should be a love letter!
Literal thinking
Artistic Thinking
Paint things
Paint Shapes
Describe details
Suggest details
Put it in if its there
Select which
shapes/ elements add to your painting and which can be left out
Illustration
Painterly
Copy as is
Create as you want it to be
Ideas for getting to more artistic thinking, more painterly
paintings
--Make sketches and work from the sketches rather
than the photo’s
-- Turn photo’s upside down to focus on shapes and paint upside
down
--Put
photos away altogether
--Work from b & w photo or value sketch or
Notan
-- Look for silhouettes of shapes, and make them
more interesting
--Give yourself permission to move things around,
add or delete what’s needed for a better composition
--Work from multiple photos’s so you’re not locked
on one.
--Be on the lookout for repetitive shapes/marks-
cloning marks
--Practice altering shapes. Modify boring shapes- -change
dimensions, change angle (oblique), have it interact with space around it-
interlocks/”incidents at the edge”
--Be mindful of edges; hard, soft, lost, found;
harder near focal area, less defined further away from focal area
--Vary colors within a shape- no need to have one
shape/one color
--Use larger brush
--Stand when painting, move from the arm, using
the brush as a shape maker, not like a pencil
--Instead of things- house, tree, think shapes of
light, shapes of dark
--Ask how the eye will move thru the painting, and
if composition is static, add movement, connecting darks, path of lights, entry
point, lines, pointers
--Combine shapes of similar value into larger
shapes
We are striving for an engaging painting:
-Unity with Diversity
-Eye Movement
How the eye sees- focus in one area, blurry on the periphery
Garden Romance
6 x 8 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello
$100
Did a small study, not based on anyplace in particular. Just wanted to get a sense of a sunlit urn filled with lush roses in a garden setting. Sometimes it's fun just to make it up rather than portray an actual scene. Just dreaming of a place I'd like to be!
Born on the 4th of July
12 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$650
Had arranged a few (sort of) red, white and blue flowers for the fourth of July. Liked the combination of roses and hydrangeas and celebratory nature of the grouping.
Decided to have some fun with interpreting it in a painting. Added some spots of color in the background to feel like the fun, festivity and fireworks associated with July 4th.
Here are some of the steps along the way showing how this painting unfolded.
Here's "Something Blue...", my most recent bridal bouquet painting. It was recently commissioned as a 5 year wedding anniversary gift from parents to their son and daughter- in- law. A photo of the original bouquet is posted below.
My mission is to use my art to spread love and there's no greater joy for me as an artist than to create something beautiful, lasting and personally meaningful that is given from a family member to someone they love dearly.
Here's what my client shared,
"We have given the painting to our son & his wife. They were surprised & impressed with the painting & the gesture. I was so pleased to give them such a personal gift & I know they will enjoy it over the years. Their wedding was simple but very very warm & delightful. It really reflected their personalities, and all of us in the family remember & speak about it often. We all will enjoy remembering it again each time we see the painting."
Thanks again Pat,
A. N. California
If I can help you celebrate a special occasion with love,please contact me about commissioning a work of art. The process is fun and easy. Learn more here.
I often create bridal bouquet paintings, but also create other floral and landscape paintings to preserve memories of a special place or favorite flowers. I'd be happy to discuss any ideas you may have to see what can be uniquely created for your loved one.
Been working and concentrating on several detailed bouquet commissions lately. Took a day off to do something lighthearted, fun and simple for a friend who loves daisies. Done with opaque paint over a transparent underpainting.
Passion for Roses 8 x 8 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello
Did a little experimenting here. Lightly sanded down an old oil painting then repainted it to get a sense of how it would look if done with a palette knife. I do like the energy, irregularity and the texture the knife adds, particularly on the leaves. But for me at least, I think there is a tradeoff on the softness of the flowers themselves that is more effectively communicated with a soft brush. Still experimenting though, so will give it some further tries.
