While struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic, British painter Daniel Halksworth listed several hyper-realistic studies for sale at slashed prices on Instagram. One was a hyper-realistic painting of a fried egg, which his girlfriend, Caz, had fried up. Luckily, the painting was sold to a local man from Sheffield. However, Halksworth soon found that he had also received several Direct Messages (DMs) from other people who wanted their own realistic fried egg painting.
With Caz recently out of the job, the couple’s new routine began. She would fry up an egg, which Halksworth would paint. Eventually, they would eat these eggs for a meal. Since then, Halksworth has sold hundreds of his fried egg paintings from his website and his Instagram. His paintings carry within them messages of food insecurity and how vulnerable artists’ jobs are in society. Still, Halkswroth’s fried egg paintings are symbols of shared universal human values which speak to the ubiquitous need to sit down for a hot meal, a longing for decent work and quality of life which would allow people to enjoy both, reflecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Decent Work And Economic Growth and Zero Hunger.
As of early March 2024, Halksworth had painted 450 fried egg paintings, which he lists for £250 - £1,000. This is a hard-earned amount, considering he has been selling these paintings for over four years. Halksworth periodically releases his egg paintings in batches that include a range of sizes and background colours. Each egg painting comes from individually fried eggs, meaning each piece is unique and no egg is the same. Sometimes, a piece has a runny yolk or even a double yolk. Halksworth occasionally adds additional food that would go well with his sunny side-ups, such as peppers or his piece Egg on Toast.
Considering the background behind Halksworth’s Fried Egg paintings, it’s not too far-fetched to connect the dots between economic strife and eggs as the cheapest source of protein. Coach.UK lists poached eggs as the third cheapest source of protein in the UK, trailing behind peanuts and peanut butter. Eggs give people 77 grams of protein for just £1. When the average person requires 60 grams of protein daily, a single egg is nearly enough to cover their full-day protein intake—providing much-needed solutions for people with food insecurity as they navigate their economic challenges.
Not only that, fried eggs are also easy to prepare. It might as well be one of the first things people learn to cook. Hence, Halksworth’s Fried Egg series sheds light on the shared vulnerabilities people face while intertwining within them the universal human need for sustenance, warmth and comfort. Each painting has witnessed Halksworth and Caz’s resilience and creativity as they, like many in society, pursue economic stability, all while never forgetting the value of small daily joys.