249. Coffee and blood orange on waffle (Kaffee und Blutorange auf Waffel)

249. Coffee and blood orange on waffle (Kaffee und Blutorange auf Waffel), 2025, Öl auf Leinwand, 15 × 20cm, (Darryn Ansted)

Coffee and blood orange on waffle

Don’t be fooled, it is a great combination of flavors. I am prety sure I had this one with Brent and his family, and that waffle doused in blood orange and coffee was dyn-o-mit.

It is the last day of 2025 now. I don’t really have the solution for how to make something from nothing. Making time for something like art usually means taking that time away from something else, making a sacrifice. Some time can be saved by turning things into a routine. Most painters that I know have a lot of routines that allow them to compress activities in order to free up space. Having said that, today I will attempt to grind through the completion of two difficult paintings and post about each, starting with this one.

I think the hectic chaos of art school helps to bring the painting out of a nostalgic mode. When I was studying and then teaching painting, I noticed pressures from the society or the institution or the broader culture stopped people from investing more of themselves into their artwork. It was almost every student that had to address the question of how to make time and space for art-making. I used to like seeing how other students could deftly cut corners with things in daily life in order to pull their artwork together. It was amazing how they could detect where the 1-Euro-soup cafeteria was in Antwerp, and attend it daily. To see how fast a student could install paintings when they had to work quickly, or how they almost pulled a rabbit out of a hat when it came to exam time, was incredible.

Today, like a lot of painters, I try to paint everyday. By trying to paint everyday, maybe I manage to paint 4-5 days a week. At the same time, the work in the studio should not become automatic. The greatest threat to making an artwork is actually making soulless artwork. However, I think all that is required to avoid making soulless artwork is just to be conscious, be present, be in the moment, during the activity of making something. Have it invole active decsion-making. Then, even an artwork that at first appears soulless can actually have a pearl inside.