Butterfly and Peony in luster
by Maureen D'Sousa

Background info.

When Marci asked me if I would send in some instructions with a piece of work I had done, I was a bit worried as I know that a lot of you have much more experience and expertise than I have. However, I do hope that someone will find the instructions useful, and perhaps the methods that I have learnt in Italy interesting.
The idea for this piece came from Peter Faust, who uses butterflies and other insects in many of his pieces. The Peony is a flower that I love, particularly when I use the oriental technique to paint flowers.
The plate, came from Portugal. I bought it while I was on holiday there a couple of years back.

Method.
I drew the Peony and the butterfly on a sheet of paper, and then when I was satisfied with it, traced it on to the plate.
I then outlined the flower and the butterfly with sugar water and iron red, and the leaves with sugar water and green.
As the lines dry immediately, one can then begin painting. I started with the flower and using "porpora nuova" (new purple). I mixed my powder colour with fat oil until it has a toothpaste consistency, and then added turpentine to thin it down. Then I used two brushes to paint each petal.
This is how I paint:
I load my long haired, rounded Raphael brush with paint, and beginning with the central petals and working towards the outer edge of the petal, I make small strokes all the way across horizontally
When I have got all the way from right to left, I come back and start another line of small strokes, again, all the way across, and so on until all the paint on my brush runs out.
I then take a short haired, dry brush and gently smooth out the last line of colour so that it blends gently into the rest of the white space on the petal. I make sure that the colour does not come all the way to the edge of the petal but finishes before.
Sometimes if the petal is very long and there is a big white space, it is possible to start at the other edge of the petal and work inwards, leaving the centre bit white.

When I have finished with the flower I begin with the leaves and using the same painting method I paint the leaves. It is possible to get all the light and dark shades and highlights on the leaf with one type of green. However sometimes, as in this case I used two different greens, painting some leaves with one green and some with the other.
Finally on this plate I painted the butterfly, this time with my long haired brush, fairly liquid paint and long strokes.
The plate was then fired at a temperature of about 720° C.
There is generally no need to do a second fire on this type of painting, but if necessary, and if one wants to deepen colours, this can be done.

I then proceeded to paint the background. I applied three different lusters. "Iris" in the top left hand corner, "pretty pink" up to two thirds of the way down the plate and "lilac" on the last part. The plate was then fired again.
Finally I painted on the little spots of liquid bright gold in clusters here and there, put a bit of gold on the butterfly's body and on the rim of the plate and fired for the last time.