“How We Bake the Spoons” – Still Life with Tomatoes and Wooden Spoons

In “How We Bake the Spoons”, A.J. Oppedijk plays with the fine line between humour and reflection. The composition — a black jar filled with wooden spoons, surrounded by tomatoes and garlic — is painted in a classical still-life style, yet the title adds a smile: a playful question about human imagination and our need to shape the impossible. The result is a warm, timeless scene full of quiet irony and light.

Technique: Oil on linen
Artist: A.J. Oppedijk
Image size: 40 × 50 cm
Including frame: 53 × 63 cm

The warm reds of the tomatoes and the earthy browns of the spoons create a gentle contrast against the deep background. Side light flows across the objects, giving them texture and presence. Oppedijk’s precise brushwork and understated symbolism show that humour and silence can coexist — balanced like ingredients in a perfect recipe.

About the Artist

Born in Sneek (1984) and based in Haarlem, Anne Jurjen (Ajo) Oppedijk combines his work as a bus driver with a growing career as a painter. His still lifes are refined, poetic, and often carry a touch of humour in their titles — inviting the viewer to look deeper. He paints not only what he sees, but what he wants you to feel: calm, wit, and light in quiet balance.

“Humour is silence that smiles.”

Read more in the full biography of Ajo Oppedijk.
Exclusively available at MyPainting.nl.