Meet West Hartford artist Jackie Fiorello, discover her sun-drenched paintings, where she finds inspiration, and how this Southern California native ended up in town.

By Melissa Cole

It’s hard to miss one of Jackie Fiorello’s paintings, and when you see one, you’ll get it. The scale, the beach scenes, and especially the colors, there’s just something magical about them.

“I have to say I do love bright colors, but sometimes I don’t even know why. I just like the vibrancy.”

Fiorello is a physicist and engineer by trade, but painting is her part-time job. Every day, she spends two hours in her basement studio, creating a space where she can let go of the stresses of the day.

“It actually is what grounds me and calms me, because as I got older in engineering, I started to feel that all the spreadsheets and the numbers were overwhelming.”

Her love of art started as far back as she can remember, during summers spent in Mariposa, California, with her grandmother.

“My first memories are of ceramics. My grandmother had a kiln in her garage, and so she was always making greenware. We would have fresh ceramics for us to paint, and she had all the equipment in her home. And I spent my summers with her.”

Through high school in Southern California, Fiorello sketched, and by her late teens, she had started painting on canvas, primarily flowers.

Eventually, she got married, started a family and built a career in engineering. Life became busy, and somewhere along the way, she realized it was time for a change. She traded in her Southern California lifestyle and settled, sight unseen, in West Hartford.

“After I had my daughter, the company I worked for was not terrible, but it wasn’t family-friendly. They didn’t make any exceptions to my schedule. So, we just Googled where in the U.S. was family-friendly. We had never set foot in Connecticut. We just came out here, Googled where to live, and it said West Hartford. We flew in and, within two weeks, bought a house.”

She laughs when she remembers just how fast it all happened.

“Everybody thought we were crazy. It turns out Google was right. West Hartford is absolutely phenomenal.”

She immediately fell in love with the architecture and character of the homes in West Hartford, not to mention the town’s lush, green trees.

“I moved here, and I was obsessed with the homes. Because they’re new, they’re different from California. They’re a little older, they have more character, they’re not, like, McMansions. And I started painting the homes because I was so moved. The piano teacher saw one and bought one, and friends saw them and said, ‘You need to sell.’”

Fiorello always starts with a photograph, using her own images for her paintings. She often takes those photos on sunny days, hoping for shadows that help her capture the feeling of being surrounded by light. “I want to feel like I’m drenched in sun,” she says.

Many of the water scenes that make their way onto her canvases are inspired by trips to the South of France. If you visited the Junior League of Hartford’s Show House on Prospect Avenue last spring, you may have spotted some of Fiorello’s bright pink and blue paintings in the back sunporch.

West Hartford designer Grace Galloway had seen Fiorello’s work on display at the West Hartford Art League and immediately knew she wanted to incorporate some of the vibrant pieces into her room design.

But Fiorello also finds plenty of inspiration closer to home. Recently, she heard about a floating dock on a pond in Sharon, Connecticut, and immediately took a drive to see what she could capture.

“I’m kind of obsessed with these floating docks. I heard that there was a floating dock with a diving board, and I had to see it, so I went and did that. So I got tons of photographs of people jumping, people diving, so I can get cool poses. And then I kind of sort through and look for really neat shots.”

You’ll be able to view these new lakescape paintings, along with many others, at Fiorello’s first solo show, coming up Sept. 19.

“Summer at Sea” will take place in The Sun Room at The Shops at 485 New Park Ave. in West Hartford. Fiorello plans to showcase approximately six larger paintings, along with about a dozen smaller works.

Guests can also enjoy wine and a live jazz trio during the evening.

Summer at Sea
When: Sept. 19, 2026, 5-8 p.m.
Where: 485 New Park Ave., West Hartford, CT 06110
Location: The Sun Room, 2nd floor
Entrance: Jefferson Avenue side of the building

Fiorello will also be taking part in the West Hartford Art League’s Fine Art Festival on Sept. 26.

West Hartford Art League Fine Art Festival
When: Sept. 26, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Where: 37 Buena Vista Road, West Hartford

Follow her on Instagram to see more of her work (@jfiorellofineart) or visit her website www.jackiefiorello.com.

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