Description

A tempting slice of homemade pistachio cream layer cake. My friend made this birthday cake. It was so good that I just had to photograph it, eat it and then paint it!

My intention was to have a nice time sloshing some paint around on the canvas but I got bogged down painting the realistic details way too early on. Copying a photo is a good technical exercise but the overall look can be less soulful.

I turned the canvas upside down to paint the bottom edge and then while it was still upside down, I carried on correcting all the issues I could see (in a more laid-back fashion). I loosely daubed on more accurate colours and subdued the reflections in the vintage smoked glass plate background, which makes the cake stand out more. So, eventually I got to slosh some paint around after all. I’m really happy with the result. It’s not supposed to be a perfect copy of a photo – I’m hoping it’s much more appealing than that!

I worked hard on this raspberry. I repainted the tiny details 3 or 4 times, over and over, fine tuning each segment.

The opulent gold frame is just to show you how the painting could look like framed. Please get in touch if you would like me to organise the framing of this painting for you.