THE WHITE PETUNIA

This is a very large painting 36"X24". It is not yet totally done. Still needs a few edge corrections and varnishing. Some of the centers could be developed more. For this painting I used light molding paste and built up the flowers in the areas of light. I think glazed the flowers with thinned paint. I used mostly water for the glazing to keep the flowers soft.

While I was building the flowers, I tried to replicate all the texture that I saw closeup in the flower, both in real life and in the enlarged photo.

My working process for these large flowers is to digitally photograph the flower and then working with it in the crop mode of Picasa, I design the composition of the actual flowers I have photographed. My camera is 8 mp, so the photos are still quite detailed when they are blown up. Once a composition comes to life for me I print it out 8.5"X11.

I then free hand draw the composition on the canvas with either charcoal or pencil, depending on the amount of detail that I want in the original drawing.

The next step is to start building the flowers. I usually use more molding paste on the lighter colors of the flowers. I keep the molding paste white at this point. This process takes several days due to the drying time. I am experimenting in the darker flowers of mixing the values that I want from the beginning. Then glazing over that to gain more depth.

So far I really enjoy this type of painting in a studio environment. This spring and fall I have been painting Plein Air for the most part and using a less structured technique.