‘Handheld Strawberries and Cream’

‘Handheld Strawberries and Cream’, 2024

Claudine of  Claudine Castro Studio

Acrylic, Acrylic Gel on Canvas – 6″ x 6″ x 1.25″

I became obsessed with strawberry desserts after my January 2024 trip to Japan. Every single strawberry dessert was aesthetically pleasing. It kind of made me sad to know that after these desserts were artfully crafted, they’d just end up disappearing after being consumed.

The strawberries all looked so healthy, too. It sounds strange, but it was as if each strawberry was individually cared for, from seed to a fully grown fruit. That’s how it felt sculpting each and every one out of paint, waiting for them to dry, and carefully nestling them into the thick creamy white background of the canvas.

Claudine is Filipina American living in Orange County, CA who, for over 27 years, has been creating pieces ranging from live sketches to acrylic paintings on canvas. She always felt compelled to create, from a toddler drawing on walls in her home in Manila, to an adult, painting murals in Costa Rica.

As her work as an artist evolved over the years, Claudine realized that art can come in different forms and is not limited to technical, rigid practices that she learned in formal education. The pressure of creating art in traditional forms slowly dissipated. Claudine found that creating intuitive, minimalistic paintings from nature & passersby is enough to convey joy and gratitude for the simple things!