Lady Di And Plein Air Workshop

Lady Di
6 x 9 watercolor
By Pat Fiorello 

Wrapping up a 10 day painting workshop in New Zealand. Had students in a variety of mediums so I did demonstrations in both oil and watercolor.   This was a watercolor demo that I gave to Di, a local New Zealander, who was our van driver to help us get around to painting sites and other cultural excursions. Di went above and beyond so I decided to give it to her as a special thank you card. Below are some photos from the workshop experience. Working off an iPhone and shaky WiFi so not able to share too much at the moment.

Tuki Tuki River, New Zealand

Tuki Tuki River , New Zealand
Watercolor
Sold 

Greetings from New Zealand. Here teaching a painting workshop in location. 

The painting above was a demo painting in watercolor. 

Will keep it brief since I’m sharing this via my phone but here are some other highlights of New Zealand. 

Some below should include Maori art and temple and Napier, restored in Art Deco style after 1931 earthquake so whole town remains in that architectural period. 

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Open to artists of all mediums and levels. 

Mt. Cook, South Island 

More near Mt. Cook

Sunset over Tuki Tuki River. Hawke’s Bay Area 

Azaleas in the Sun

"Azaleas in the Sun"
8 x 10 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
 $300

This painting was done as a demonstration painting at my recent "Oil Painting Basics" workshop.

The group was comprised of mostly people who had never painted in oils or never painted at all before so we started with the basics-  materials, color mixing, value control, creating form, black & white and color studies and then brought it all together painting this landscape step by step.

Below are the steps in the process- placement, the block in (starting to lay in the darkest shape, adding in the middle values, bringing in the next lightest value and then ending with the lightest lights). Once the entire canvas was covered, the block in is complete. Then the final stage is refinement or fine tuning shapes, colors, values and edges.

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"After Mortelmans"

"After Mortelmans"
12 x 16 oil painting
NFS

For many centuries, artists have studied and copied the masters to build their own skills. In "copying" a masterpiece, you attempt to reverse engineer and figure out ,"how did they do that"? Or maybe more accurately, how can I make marks and use my knowledge of drawing, values, colors and edges to simulate what another artist created.  A caveat is that doing this it that it must be solely for learning purposes. It is not ethical to sell or enter a show with art that is copied from another artist - whether living or not.

Today's learning exercise was to create a painting inspired by this gorgeous painting by Frans Mortelmans, 1865-1936. Although not as well know as some of the other expert floral artists, like Fantin-Latour, Mortelmans did leave an exceptional body of work (including other genres beyond florals as well).

This is one of my favorites of his, so I decided to give it a shot. My aim was not so much to replicate it exactly, stroke for stroke, but to paint it using similar colors, shapes and values so I could get a sense of how he was interpreting the scene before him. In painting from another painting, someone has already taken the 3 dimensional world and translated it into the language of paint, so the hard part has already been done for you, but nevertheless there is value to painting it to understand that interpretation.

Below are the steps I took in creating  my version of Mortlemans' painting.

Rough drawing for placement

Block in the darks

Add background

Add table top, after this, lights placed to complete block in
and then shapes, colors, values, edges refined

 

Mortleman's print on left, my finished painting on right.

Spring Renewal

Spring Renewal
9 x 12 Oil Painting
by Pat Fiorello
$425

Attended a wonderful workshop given by artist Daniel Keys at the Scottsdale Artists School last week. It's tough to get into his workshops so I was grateful to finally have the opportunity to study with him and I was not disappointed. We painted from life each day. Below are photos from day 1. I did not complete this painting in class, but since I had the photo's was able to finish it back in my studio.

The focus of the workshop was on the fundamentals of painting: Drawing, Values, Color and Edges. Sounds simple. But takes a lifetime to master.

Holiday Spirit

Holiday Spirit
8 x 10 oil painting
by Pat Fiorello
 $300

 

As the 2018 holiday season ends, the celebrations are complete and we put away all our decorations, my wish for you is that the spirit of the holidays- love, generosity and wonder, with a touch of magic thrown in- stay with you each and every day throughout the coming year.  Happy 2019!