She was encouraged by her daughter-in-law, who brought pieces of cardboard and paint from her son's (professional painter) studio. Petronele was amazed that she could paint so quickly and effortlessly. She always had a clearly formed idea of the painting, its composition, and combinations of colours in her head. She painted fast, hurrying as if in oblivion, without sketches, dabbing paint directly from the tube, mixing the colours right on the cardboard or canvas. First, with a dry brush, with its stem (“why stroke and daub needlessly”), Petronele would outline the place of the main character. She only used a palette for putting paint tubes on it. Like this, in one fell swoop, she created her first painting, "Under the Maple, Under the Green One…": “This is after the song “under the maple, under the green one, there’s a young lad lying…” and, of course, a young girl is handing her heart to him. The girl’s heart is always bigger than the boy’s."