Heaven Scent

Heaven Scent
16 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$1200

 

Aside from the apparent visual beauty of these O'Hara roses, a distinctive feature is their wonderful fragrance. I enjoyed having the scent in my studio while painting "Heaven Scent".

Bliss

Bliss
12 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
 SOLD

This is my latest bridal bouquet painting just shipped off to a recent bride in New York. The parents of the groom gave one of my gift certificates to the couple for an engagement gift.

 As soon as the photo's were in I started on this painting. It provided some challenges not only that it was an all white bouquet (as many of them are) but the sweet peas are very delicate and almost paper thin, unlike some of the more typical wedding flowers like roses, hydrangeas and peonies which have a more solid form.

The broach on the handle was of special significance in that it was a wedding knot broach that belonged to the bride's late grandmother, so I gave it a little more detail.

Below is the reference photo from the wedding.

Here's what the bride had to say, 

"Hi Pat,

Confirming I received my painting last night and I absolutely love it! I cannot wait to get it framed and hang it on my wall. I really think it came out beautifully and it is such a special reminder of our wedding day. I cannot thank you enough. I will most definitely be referring your work to my engaged friends!

Thank you so much,

Laura"

If you are interested in commissioning one of my "Forever Bouquet Paintings" for a special bride-to be or for an anniversary gift, please contact me. More on my website.

Seeking Stillness

Seeking Stillness
9 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$425

 

Wanted to create an elegant, peaceful feeling painting of roses and hydrangeas. Below is my set up and steps along the process in creating this painting. Note photo's exaggerate lights and darks so didn't want things to be quiet as dark as they appear in the photo of the set up.

The set up, lighting from overhead.

Initial general drawing- get things in the ballpark of where they will go.

Start blocking in darkest value shape

Then next darkest value shape

Shadows on flower shapes added

Background and tabletop blocked in a lighter value, but leaving room for lightest value yet to come

 

Added lights, block in complete. From here is a process of refining shapes to resolve things to the level desired.

June Joy!

June Joy!
16 x 16 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
 SOLD

June Joy! is a recent bridal bouquet painting that a loving husband commissioned as a special gift for his wife.   He asked if I could include their wedding date in the painting somehow. The date is embedded in a leaf, so it's there if you're looking for it, but not too obvious to take away from the flowers. A beautiful collection, primarily peonies, roses, sweet peas and ranunculus. Some close ups of the painting are below.

If you'd like to arrange for a special painting to be created for someone you love, please contact me directly.

Click here for more on my "Forever Bouquet Paintings"  

Garden at the Hotel Baudy

Garden at the Hotel Baudy

12 x 16 Oil Painting

by Pat Fiorello

$650

This painting was inspired by garden roses I had seen growing in the garden of the historic Hotel Baudy in Giverny France. The hotel is not far from Monet's Garden. The Baudy is now a restaurant, but in the heyday of the impressionist movement, many artists, not only Monet, were drawn to Giverny to paint. Back then the Hotel Baudy  started as a shop, but was converted to a hotel. It was a place where artists might stay overnight. Madame Baudy even built a small studio in the back which still stands there surrounded by beautiful gardens.

To learn about this historic place more click here.

I know the reference photo was taken there because I recognize the distinctive chairs they have in front of the studio (see a piece of the green chair in lower right corner of the bottom photo).

I didn't want to make the flowers quite as pink as the original photo, but was more interested in getting a feeling of being right up close to the garden to you could touch and smell the roses and also to have a feeling of sunlight on the flowers. I cropped in quite a bit, selecting which groupings of flowers I wanted to focus in on.

I usually take photos of my finished paintings outside in daylight. With the dark background and wet canvas there is a bit of glare on the photo of the canvas.  

While I was outside for the photo,  I placed this painting near some foliage to see how true it felt to the feeling of a garden in sun and was pleased that the foliage colors rang true.

Petite Roses

Petite Roses
8 x 10 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
 $300

 

Came across a charming little pot of tiny roses at Trader Joes last week. I couldn't resist them so they were coming home with me! Decided to paint them leaving out the pot and imagining how they might have been still growing in the garden.