Poinsettia

Poinsettia
9 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$425

As this holiday season and 2018 draw to a close, I'd like to thank you for your interest and following along on my art journey this past year.

Best wishes to you for a very happy New Year and a 2019 filled with beauty, love and inspiration!

Gather 'Round

Gather 'Round
12 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$750

 


Been busy with holiday and year end activities this month so I haven't been posting to the blog as much, but I have been painting with a focus on still life this month. Gather 'Round above is the latest of these paintings.  Some of the others completed this month are below. All are available on my Daily Paintworks gallery.

 One of my intentions for 2019 is to do more still life paintings incorporating props I've purchased over the years for still life set ups but have yet to paint.  I have a whole book case filled with props of all sizes, colors and surfaces and  many of them have yet to make their painting debut. So stay tuned for some new inspiration in the coming year.

Thank you for following along on my blog. I appreciate your interest in my artwork.

Best wishes for a very happy holiday season and may 2019 be your best year yet!

Brass & Pears

Red Jug Study

I Dream of Genie

Yellow, Purple & Green

Mandarins!

Green Glass

Garden Light

Garden Light
12 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello

I had observed these beautiful roses in what looks like a parking lot.  I liked the shapes and pattern of light and shadow, but decided to use some "artistic license" to transform the parking lot into a garden scene.

 Here are some of the steps getting started on "Garden Light".

Breathe!

Breathe!
8 x 10 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$300

A peek behind the scenes in the development of this latest painting entitled "Breathe"

Keeping the Faith

Keeping the Faith
16 x 20 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$1600

 

 I recently took a flower arranging workshop at Faith Flowers Studio in Atlanta. Laura Iarocci is the owner and offers classes, in addition to the exceptional floral design services she and her team provide for weddings and other special occasions.

The focus of this particular class was using grocery store flowers to make a beautiful arrangement at home. Laura shared her "recipe" for this arrangement and then the students (including me) were given a bucket of these flowers- roses, hydrangea, spay roses, carnations along with greenery like pittosporum and seeded eucalyptus to create an arrangement of our own. Below are some photo's of the arrangement I made during class,  the completed arrangement after class on the bench and then set up as inspiration for the still life shown above.

Dahlia Daze

Dahlia Daze
12 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$750

 

Bought a new green ceramic container at an antique shop last week and thought I'd have it makes it's debut at a still life prop with these colorful dahlias.

Something Blue- Flower Painting Workshop

"Something Blue"
12 x 16 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
$750

 

This is my demonstration painting from my "Painting Flowers Alla Prima in Oil" workshop this past weekend at the Spruill Arts Center in Dunwoody, GA.

A fun group of students all did a "paint-along" of this arrangement with me.  I shared a method I often use to get a painting started in a fun, freeing way- and that is to just start out without drawing,  just massing in  general shapes with only transparent colors. The beginning part often looks way too bright, but then colors and values are adjusted during the next phase where opaque paints are brought in to bring the whole thing into balance.

Roses In the Sun

Roses in the Sun
9 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
 $425

 

 Continuing on with some experimentation pushing light and shadow, this is "Roses in the Sun" . I started with a reference photo I had take in a beautiful rose garden, but wanted to come closer in, so really cropped it in closely to focus on this cluster of 3 roses. Here are some steps along the way.

Original reference photo

Started with a very rough sketch

Added the shadow shapes of the flowers

Added in background (sky)

Added in lights

Continued to refine shapes, leaves , adjust colors, edges etc..

Backyard Blossoms

Backyard Blossoms
8 x 10 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello
$300

 

I've been experimenting a bit with different  approaches to depicting  light and shadow. Revisited a photo I'd taken of these David Austin Desdemona Roses that grow in my backyard. I first painted them a year ago and thought I'd give it another try, focusing on strong light and shadow on the major blossoms and more suggestion of activity on the background.

Did this painting starting with background, wiping out the overall shape, building shadow shapes, then light shapes and refining from there. Here are some of the steps along the way below.

The Blue Vase

The Blue Vase
8 x 10 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$300

I have been on the hunt for a ceramic black vase for months, looking in antique shops, on -line, pottery stores etc.. and no luck.  In the meantime, I came across this small blue vase. Loved the color, so the next thing you know it was coming home with me to be added to my still life prop collection. 

 Despite the end of summer, these yellow, orange and white flowers are lingering on in my garden so I clipped a few thinking they might be wonderful warm colors against the blue vase.

Things Are Looking UP!

Things Are Looking UP!
12 x 12 Oil Painting by Pat Fiorello
 $600

 

Over the summer I taught a painting workshop in Italy. the day I arrived and checked into my hotel, I realized I was just a block away from one of the world's oldest botanical gardens which is in Florence Italy ( built approx. 1545).

I stopped by that afternoon and  saw these luscious garden roses hanging form a trellis and new I wanted to paint them.

Since I came back home, I've been thinking this painting.  Initially I was going to paint literally what I had in the photo . I did like the flowers against the buildings to suggest Italy. But then I thought, why not simplify the design and just focus on the flowers against the sky.   I took the photo and kind of mapped out how it could be without the buildings in the background and gave it a shot.

I may still do another version with the buildings in the background, but that will be for another day.

Roses Inspired by Sorolla

Roses Inspired by Sorolla
8 x 10 Oil Painting
$300

 

Sorolla is one of my favorite artists. I admire his ability to convey a sensation of light. I was fortunate to go visit his home, studio and garden, which is now the Sorolla Museum in Madrid earlier this year.

I created a painting ( see "Reverence" in the previous post)  inspired by this photo in the pink tones the other day. I had seen these beautiful sunlit roses at the Chicago Botanical Garden during a recent visit. 

As an experiment, I decided to paint them a 2nd time with the aim of capturing the sense of sunlight as Sorolla did. Just for fun, I changed the color of the roses in the reference photo.

I tried to push the differences between light and shadow and hopefully captured the feeling of the garden on a warm sunny day.

Reverence

Reverence
12 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$600

 

Made a visit to the Chicago Botanic Garden during a recent trip to that city. It was my first time at the garden there and we only had an hour to check it out, but it was very impressive and well worth going back to. 

Stopped in the rose garden and took the photo below of this beautiful cluster of roses in sunlight.  I played with the composition a little bit in photoshop (you can see the marked up image further below) and decided to create the painting in a square format.

Before painting it, I thought about the feeling I wanted the painting to convey. What came to me was reverence. Honoring the beauty of the flowers and the light and the source of all creation. We are blessed to have the beauty and magnificence of roses available to us.

Reference photo from the Garden

Playing with the design in photoshop

Dunwoody Home Tour 2018

The Dunwoody Women's Club is a volunteer organization that's been contributing in many ways to the Dunwoody, GA community. For 46 years, they have been hosting the Dunwoody Home Tour as a fund raiser to support their community efforts.  Usually 4-5 homes in the community are on tour for others to visit and be inspired by. 

I've been fortunate to be invited to be the artist for the program for many years.  Each year I paint the homes on the tour which are then presented to the homeowners as a thank you gift for the generous sharing of their homes on the tour.

These are the watercolor home portraits I created for this years tour. An extra venue was included this year- the historic Donaldson Bannister farm shown below.

The event will be held on Wednesday October 3. More information, including where to buy tickets, is available on the Dunwoody Women's club website .

If you are interested in a home portrait for yourself or as a gift for someone special, please contact me.

Historic Donaldson Bannister farm

Backyard view of one of the homes