Epiphany

The idea for this painting was born within seconds before my inner eye. Like an epiphany.
But the way to get there was through mental experimentation, sketching, discarding and a long series of pictures that had to be created as steps towards this picture.
The "test series" came from two directions. On the one hand my still lifes, whose reference photos were taken in the style of "darkfood photography" and on the other hand my flower and blossom paintings.
The beauty of nature has always fascinated me and I always had the feeling that nothing could be added to it except the way of depiction, which adds a feeling to the sheer beauty and a story to the painting. The flower and blossom paintings are the result of this feeling.
On the other side was my affinity for food. Food as part of nature. Prepared food as part of the cultural history and the landscape of the people who live in it. Food as still life, as an aesthetic form. My still lifes come from this direction.
I have never been able to decide whether I prefer to tell stories with my paintings or simply devote myself to aesthetics. And it was never clear to me whether these two points of view complemented or contradicted each other.
All of this whirled around in my head and at the same time I had a conversation with an artist friend of mine. Triggered by something in the conversation, in a fraction of a second, the image merged in my mind.
This painting has no story (at most a prehistory) and is dedicated exclusively to the aesthetics of natural form and colour.
This painting was created over a period of 6 months and was a joy in every phase of its creation. Many of the fruits I have depicted in pastel for the first time in my life and so this picture is also a broadening of my horizon in a technical sense.