Edoardo Petracca

Year of birth: I was born in 1992. 
Where do you live: I am living in Italy.
Your education: I am a self-taught.
Describe your art in three words: I would be more interested to know what three words would people use to describe my art.
Your discipline: Oil painting.
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Can you tell us about your journey as a self-taught artist? What inspired you to start painting in 2008?

I always liked to draw since I was a kid, through the years, I developed an interest towards hyperrealism, this technique is not taught in common art academies, so the only option I had, was to learn by myself; I thought that maybe with efforts and discipline I could be able to learn, that is why I started to paint using oil colours in 2008, before this date I used other media.

Your paintings reflect an incredible attention to detail. How do you decide which elements of reality to highlight in your work?

Details are some of my favourite things to paint, anyway I do not highlight some details instead of others, I just paint the scene as it is, closer details will be sharper, the ones in the background more blurred, but always with an homogeneous and natural result; often my paintings are more detailed than the photos used as references, when some things are not visible, I do researches for paint even those parts and details.

Edoardo Petracca | I got lost | 2022

How has your technique evolved over the years, and what motivated you to incorporate old techniques in a hybrid and modern way?

My techniques are in continuous evolution, I learn with every painting I do, trying always different things and making a lot of experiments, starting from the preparation of the canvases, that I make smooth like a sheet of paper, to the new techniques I am developing.

My approach to painting can be considered uncommon, I do not follow the typical stereotypes or rules, contrary to what is commonly believed, for many parts of my paintings I can already obtain an hyperrealistic effect painting alla prima, for example I can paint windows, windscreens and similar things with this technique, and they can be considered finished, I paint the first layer in this way, instead of a more traditional loose block-in, paint in a detailed way since the beginning gives a better result for me, after the first layer made like this, is refined adding more layers, transparent layers and glazings, that are an old technique invented by old Flemish painters, where colours are obtained painting thin layers of transparent colours over a previously dried one, this is called optical mixing, but results are difficult to control in this way, so the modern difference is to previously mix the correct transparent colour for match the one in the reference imagine and paint directly with it.

You emphasize replicating reality without distortions or alterations. What challenges do you face in achieving this “perfectly imperfect” representation?

These are two different things, when I say that I replicate reality without distortions, I mean that I paint a scene as it would be seen by the human eyes, for example if you take a photo of a landscape, cityscape or a portrait, especially using a wide lens, you will see that the photo shows lens’ distortions, so it is different from what you really see, this and other defects of photography, are not found in my paintings, this also proves that contrary to what some people think, hyperrealism is not just copy a photo, but looking at my paintings you see that scene exactly like you would see it with your eyes if you were there in person.

Instead when I say that I paint perfectly imperfect things, I mean that I do not modify things that can be considered ugly for make them look better, these can be the rust on a pole, dirt, broken things, or physical characteristics of people, I paint the reality as it is, accepting the beauty that can be found in imperfections, as expressed by the wabi-sabi philosophy.

Edoardo Petracca | X | 2024

How do you balance between technical precision and artistic expression in your paintings?

I do not think that technical precision is a limit to the artistic expression, as I do not think that other styles of painting are more expressive than hyperrealism just because do not have technical precision, for example an abstract painting looks like a dirty palette, or a monochromatic canvas is exactly like one of those colour’s samples you can see at the paint shops, they are not even art, do they also have an artistic expression? Jan Van Eyck’s paintings are highly detailed and centuries ago he reached a technical precision unknown before him, do his paintings lack artistic expression because they have these characteristics?

In a world dominated by digital and AI-generated imagery, why is it important to you to depict reality as it is?

I am not interested in AI and AI generated imagines are not art, with their development will be more difficult for people to distinguish what it real and what is not, fake things are not for me, I prefer to paint real things that exist in real life with real colours and real brushes.

Edoardo Petracca | Halo | 2024

What role do light and color play in your process, and how do you approach layering to achieve such a life-like effect?

Without light and colours there will not be a painting, a realistic effect is achieved also by painting value and chroma correctly, so are of a fundamental importance, I use a limited palette and in this way I can replicate every colour I need; layering is also very important because in this way you can create various effects, that can be textures, reflections, reflected lights, transparencies, more depth, if you watch my painting “Halo” you will se many examples of this, because is fully made with glazings, for example, if I had painted the sign up on the left with opaque colours, it would not have been so luminous and transparent, giving the impression that there is a real light inside it, same thing for all those coloured reflected lights on the walls or the asphalt, another example can be the escalator in my painting “X” or that sky that was made applying five layers of oil paint, plus three layers for the clouds, for certain things, more layers you apply more real they will look.