246. Hazelnut and Raspberry ice cream in blue and white porcelain (Haselnuss- und Himbeereis in Zwiebelmuster Porzellan)

246. Hazelnut and Raspberry ice cream in blue and white porcelain (Haselnuss- und Himbeereis in Zwiebelmuster Porzellan), 2025, Öl auf Leinwand, 15 × 20cm, (Darryn Ansted)

Painting ice cream slows down the melting of time because every painting is a site of discovery and experimentation.

Ice cream has been a good motif to pursue. One aspect I enjoy is that it tends to disarm the viewer, so that they can let themselves begin to have an encounter with paint that might not otherwise have been possible. Ice cream is something to which everyone can relate. However, it is not something for which we normally slow down. I think we can all agree that it disappears very quickly.

Before age 28, I didn’t really paint anything that I feel goes beyond student work. I am often having the conversation with other painters that it was so hard to find people to learn from. Interesting painters rarely teach painting. As a result the totality of the body of work is always a generative foundation for further work, which could not have been done without it. No individual painting is the final answer or end point.