The client brought me her daughter’s old table and requested Trompe L’oeil pink Peonies. Although flat objects are easier to paint in a ‘Fool-the-Eye’ style, I was delighted with the challenge. Trompe L’oeil should tell a story, so I included a scissors which is still wet from cutting the flowers. A lady bug has come in with the blossoms by accident. Water droplets on the leaves, petals and scissor blades add to the realism. This table came to me in a dry, stripped condition with damaged areas and a request for a subtle color scheme. I pulled out the details of the table itself with simple taupe, grey and cream which also helped down play the missing molding on one corner. A peony is a flower with multiple layers of petals and is not exactly easy to paint. For those of you who are interested in my process, I included a photo here of an early stage of this piece. You can see that I have painted the leaves, but the highlights of the flower petals have been done in just white, allowing the background to show through for depth. The next step was a pink wash over the whole blossom.
