01/09/2026
One for Sorrow, Two for Joy
By Sophia Ponté
Another little gem from the Painting Prize that, perhaps unsurprisingly, found a new home.
Painted in egg tempera, Sophia Ponté’s One for Sorrow, Two for Joy takes its title from the traditional nursery rhyme about seeing magpies. Sophia describes the work as being about how “happiness and loss often follow each other closely in life”, reflecting on cycles of life and death in the natural world.
The materials are an important part of the piece too. The painting is framed in bark taken from a fallen oak tree on Sophia’s family farm, creating a direct connection between the subject of the work and the natural environment it draws from.
Sophia is a London-based artist working across drawing, printmaking and painting, often combining traditional techniques with scavenged natural materials.
This work has now sold, but many other paintings from the Well Hung Painting Prize are still available to view and purchase on our website.