CHERRY PIE, February 2025

Cherry pie is a still life painting of a delicious homemade cherry pie using a recent discovery - year round frozen cherries - and enjoyed by everyone. 

The pie clearly has a good deal of natural appeal but in my still life paintings, I am interested in that transformation, particularly in finding beauty in places where it might not be expected. Here, I want to see whether I could paint the beauty of this messy pie dish with the final slice of pie. 

The centre of the composition is the juice on the base of the glass pie dish. Everything else frames this and it’s not a problem if it doesn’t fit into the frame. The tulips only appear as the vase, stems and a drooping leaf - here, flowers are irrelevant.
The biggest challenge was the glass reflection. I decided to actually paint exactly what I could see. Having never tried this before was a huge advantage because I had nothing to go from and so I just enjoyed the dots and blots and slurps of colour. It may not work for everybody but I find it really works for me and also exists as an Abstract, an attractive textured pattern of paint.

Acrylic on Stone Paper, 29 × 21 cm

Private collection, Emily Hadwen