Loosen up your Painting Style

If you feel your artwork is too “tight” and you wish you had a more painterly style, this workshop can help you with practical approaches for loosening up your approach. Go beyond literal thinking and merely copying a photograph to paint using a loose, fresh, direct method. Pat will share "hands on" approaches, exercises and you’ll apply these new techniques to paintings as well. Be sure to bring a past painting of your own that you’d like to interpret in a looser fashion and the original photo reference. Pat will be working with florals as a subject the first 2 days, but the course content applies to any subject matter and is applicable to oils or acrylics.

On day 1, Pat will share a presentation on this topic, and we’ll do some simple exercises to practice techniques. On day 2, we’ll do a “paint along” including a value sketch and full painting with the aim of creating it in a looser style. On Day 3, you will take one of your own paintings that you felt was “too tight” and create another version with an eye towards creating a looser, more expressive painting, incorporating some of the methods shared.

About your instructor:

Pat Fiorello is an award-winning fine artist, instructor and author of the book, Bella Italia, Italy Through the Eyes of an Artist. She works in both oil and watercolor. Her work has been featured in 20 one-woman shows and been included in over 100 juried exhibitions, including the American Impressionist Society, Oil Painters of America and NOAPS. She is a Signature Member of the Georgia Watercolor Society.

Pat’s worked was awarded Best Oil Painting in the 13th annual PleinAir Salon competition sponsored by PleinAir® Magazine. Her work has received Best Floral and Honorable Mention recognition in the PleinAir Salon competitions as well. As a finalist in the “Florals and Gardens” challenge, Pat’s work appeared in International Artists magazine and was also published in The Richeson International Still Life and Floral competition book (2021, 2023.) in 2015, Pat won the Grand Prize at the annual plein air painting competition in Giverny, France and was invited back by the Mayor to exhibit her work at the “Laureate de la Fete de la Peinture” exposition in France.

Inspired to devote her life to creating and sharing beauty, Pat made a radical career shift following a 20-year career in Marketing. After attending the Harvard Business School and serving as Vice President of Marketing of The Coca-Cola Company, in 2002 she followed her calling and dedicated her life to creating art on a full-time basis.

Pat teaches workshops both in person and on-line, and has led 20 international workshops in Italy, Spain, New Zealand, and France, including private workshops at Monet’s Gardens in Giverny.

Streamline Publishing produced and distributes a full-length instructional video called “Vibrant Florals, Paint Your Garden” featuring Pat’s painting methods. It is available as a DVD or digitally on PaintTubeTV.

To learn more, see patfiorello.com or follow Pat on Facebook or Instagram.