The composition of this work was developed through three successive reworkings, with the most significant shift lying in whether the blue figure is awake or asleep. In the final version, I gave her a state of wakefulness. This awareness allows her to perceive the presence of care and affection, transforming tenderness within the image from a one-sided offering into a shared and mutual connection.

蛇就在近处。而那朵我们一心想去欣赏的小花，离得更近。

旁人都说这条蛇温顺无害、生性怯懦，可我始终隔着紧闭的窗、守着安全的距离静静观望。我享受着这份与它为邻的奇妙感受。原来有些恐惧，伴着周遭生灵相伴，便会温柔许多。

这幅画作始于葡萄牙日本山艺术驻留基地，创作取材于当时周遭的自然实景景致，后续在伦敦的个人工作室完成定稿。

A snake is nearby. Much closer, the small flower we long to admire. I’ve been told the snake is harmless and shy, yet I only observed her from the safe distance of my window, which I kept closed at all times. I enjoyed the strange feeling of being her neighbour. Some fears are much softer with company. 

I started this painting at the artistic residency Monte da Japónica, in Portugal, incorporating painting from observation from the landscape surrounding me at the time, and finished it in my studio in London.

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Joana Galego, All the gifts sweet and bitter, 2026, Acrylic, oil and soft pastel on linen, 102 x 76 cm

乔安娜·加莱戈，「所有苦与甜的馈赠」，2026，亚麻丙烯、软粉彩，102 x 76 cm

There’s an orange tree next to the house where my grandparents lived. My grandma used to fear that burglars would climb it and enter through the window. My parents always said that the oranges it gives are not the best to eat, too bitter and small, but I enjoy picking them from the balcony, which stands just slightly below the tree’s highest branches. I enjoy painting oranges and lemons because of their beauty and bitterness, which reminds me of life. 

I wanted to paint two friends dancing and sharing gifts, one running ahead, knowingly, the other unsure, but in tender cumplicity. I wanted the gifts to be bitter yet sweetly offered, like the memory of the oranges in my grandmother’s house. 

There is the tall trunk of a tree on the left and someone sitting on the floor, still learning how to dance. 

I made the sketch of the person sitting down behind the tree a long time ago, and I’ve tried many times to refer to it in a painting. I think I’m drawn to the depiction of solitude which the drawing evoked, but the painting invariably ended up becoming more about togetherness (not always sweet, but so precious).

I don’t know what age I was, but I remember thinking that if you kissed someone and ate cereal afterwards the kiss would stain the milk red and everyone would be able to tell what you had done. 

Why would a kiss awaken so many feelings of shame and guilt? 

My favourite breakfast cereal at the time was Estrelitas, which means little stars and was shaped accordingly. My parents had a set of kitchenware which looked like cabbage leaves. 

The stars look more like flowers, almost like the onesshared between the girls in another painting, all the gifts sweet and bitter. 

I must always try to paint an abraço, the portuguese word for hug. 

This painting is the most spontaneous in the show and the one that took less layering work since I wanted as much as possible to conserve its initial washes of acrylic. Again, the dove reappears.