The Last Slice: Painting Oils Over an Abstract Acrylic Background

There is something irresistible about painting food, especially when it involves glossy berries, rich fruit sauce and a beautifully lit slice of cheesecake.

My latest painting, The Last Slice, combines a loose, abstract acrylic background with a carefully observed oil painting completed using an alla prima approach.

Beginning With an Abstract Foundation

Rather than starting on a plain surface, I first created an abstract acrylic background using soft, muted colour and expressive brushwork. This gave me an atmospheric foundation without making the background too descriptive. Its subdued reds, blues and earthy neutrals help the lighter cheesecake stand out while echoing the colours in the berries, plate and spoon.

Sealing the Acrylic Layer

Before introducing oil paint, I sealed the dry acrylic background with a layer of matte medium. This is an important step. Matte medium creates a suitable surface, or “tooth”, to which the oil paint can adhere. It also helps unify the absorbency of the acrylic layer, giving you a more predictable surface on which to paint.

Always allow the acrylic and matte medium to dry thoroughly before applying oils.

Painting Alla Prima

I painted the cheesecake using an alla prima technique, working wet into wet and developing the subject as a complete painting rather than building it through many separate, dried oil layers.

Alla prima does not mean rushing or abandoning structure. It means making deliberate decisions while the paint remains workable. Before I began, I pre-mixed four colour values, two lights and two darks. Having those values ready on the palette makes the painting process so much easier, allowing me to concentrate on shape, edges and brushwork rather than repeatedly stopping to mix.

The drawing, values, edges and colour relationships still need careful consideration. The freedom comes from learning how to control the wet paint rather than allowing it to control you.

Learning to Work From Thin to Thick

One of the most useful principles in alla prima painting is to work from thin paint towards thicker applications. I began with relatively thin mixtures to establish the main shapes, proportions and darker values. These early passages provided a foundation without filling the surface with too much paint too soon.

As the painting developed, I gradually increased the paint thickness. The lightest areas of the cheesecake, the reflected light on the plate and spoon, and the highlights on the blueberries and fruit sauce were applied more generously. Saving your thicker, lighter paint until later helps those final marks remain clean, luminous and convincing.

Creating the Different Textures

This subject provided a wonderful opportunity to explore contrasting textures.

The soft cheesecake filling needed gentle value transitions and carefully controlled edges. The biscuit base required broken colour and a slightly more textured application, while the glossy berry topping depended on strong darks and precisely placed highlights.

Those small highlights only work because of the quieter painting underneath them. A bright mark cannot create shine by itself, it needs the correct value structure, colour and surrounding edges.

Paint With Knowledge, Not Guesswork

Successful oil painting is not about collecting tricks or hoping that more detail will rescue the picture. It comes from understanding the fundamentals: drawing, values, colour, edges, paint consistency and confident brushwork.

That is the approach I teach inside MazArt Academy. When you understand why each stage matters, you can make purposeful decisions and develop skills that transfer to every subject you paint.

Paint The Last Slice With Me

The complete step-by-step tutorial for The Last Slice, from the first abstract acrylic marks to the final oil highlights, will be available inside MazArt Academy on 31 July.

Join MazArt Academy and learn oil painting the right way, with clear instruction, strong foundations and a process you can use with confidence in your own work.

Join MazArt Academy and start becoming the painter you know you can be.

Join MazArt Academy