Warm light against the cool shadows

The sequence from predawn to full sunlight was less than 10 minutes. You need to know where you're going to be when the sun comes up.

By Peter Fiore

In this post, I want to show how my painting "Tangle 6", while rich in color, is also very much anchored in strong values.

By Peter Fiore

A new series emerges for me -- "The Tangle". Part of the series will deal with trees and the abstraction that is made by the flashes of light upon limbs, branches and twigs.

By Peter Fiore

This is a close-up to show how simply things are blocked. I'm using a fairly large, like a size 10, flat bristle brush here. This brush is great for large bold strokes and used on it's edge or side or tip, much smaller marks can be made.

By Peter Fiore

The sky is always key to the color structure of a painting. The entire painting is a repetition of all the color from the sky. This morning, all the delicate sky colors were very much in the same value space. In light such as this, nature often gives you close values with a wide range of color.

By Peter Fiore

Painting the sunlit ground plane, carves out the bases of these tree trunks, when viewed from a distance creates the illusion of solidity and dimension. This is the magic that I strive for in painting.

By Peter Fiore

Pay attention to color temperature as well as value in order to lift winter landscapes out of the duldrums.

By Peter Fiore

What attracted me to this scene was the spectacular play of light -- both in the sky and in the field. A certain amount of manipulation was necessary to strike this composition.

By Peter Fiore

I was struck by how this tree was much more than an object, it was very much a presence. After doing several studies of this new motif, I came to this solution. I wanted a heightened sense of color and light to convey the life and power of this tree.

By Peter Fiore

Keeping the eye visually entertained is paramount in my approach so that no matter how minutely you look at a section of the painting it is a microcosm of the entire work.

By Peter Fiore

A new motif has emerged. I walk often along this path that parallels the Delaware River. The white pine trees along the way have become my latest obsession. Trees have always been an important subject for me and I believe on many levels that they are metaphors for life. They have long histories and many stories to tell.

By Peter Fiore

Rather than using a dramatic value shift to seperate light and shadow on the snow, I chose to hold the separation with a change in color temperature. Shaodws are cool and the lights are warm. This technique yields a much more subtle and sophisticated approach to the representation of light and shadow.

By Peter Fiore

This white pine has been the subject for several paintings. On this day, I came upon a very strange sort of scene. The ground had been burned off. The charred bark of the tree was most interesting in its subtle and delicate range of dark tones including warm blacks, cool blacks, reds, oranges and even lavender were all represented. Proving that all color is present in neutrals; whites, grays and in this case black.

By Peter Fiore

The light was clear, sharp -- just spectacular. Color bounced every where. The water reflected the sky, leaves moved in the breeze. This scene was full of constant motion. That's what I wanted to capture.

By Peter Fiore

Barn at Tizzano
Thoughts on Painting Blog
June 2009

Giving depth and interest to a simple area like a lawn is no easy matter. It needs to be designed.

By Peter Fiore

Tuscan Barn, oil/linen, 24x48

Tuscan Barn
Thoughts on Painting Blog
June 2009

This Tuscan barn was a wonderful discovery. It's similar to subjects that I enjoy painting near my home in Pennsylvania. The large sweeping fields that lead you back into distant spaces.

By Peter Fiore

White Barn, oil/linen, 12x16

White Barn
Thoughts on Painting Blog
June 2009

Over the past few years I have come to enjoy painting light that falls from over my shoulder. This light is particularly beautiful because it imparts its color temperature upon the objects making shapes flat and colorful.

By Peter Fiore