pink tulip in bloom close up photo

To achieve this painterly look in my flower photographs, I take several processing steps: (1) Increase the clarity slider (2) Decrease the texture slider (almost all the way down) (3) Move sharpness to the middle (3) Decrease noise (Color and Light). It seems like all of these adjustments will cancel each other out, however when you try, you will see that the result is smooth, silky and painterly with crisp edges.