Love This! Crazy-Realistic Dessert Paintings

There are a couple of things that have inspired today's post. One, I have given up sweets and desserts for the month of January (to cleanse my body and get over my holiday treat addiction!), so the topic of dessert has been on my mind for the past few days. Two, I have always ADORED Wayne Theibaud (see this post about my love for him!), and I believe that all contemporary artists painting desserts and food owe a lot of their success to him for paving the way. Three, I think that desserts are really beautiful and I love still life paintings of man-made objects. So voila! I heart the work of the following two artists.

Check them out below...they're pretty sweet ;)

Artist #1: Joel Penkman
To me, Penkman's work looks very influenced by Theibaud. But whether it is or not, she is extremely talented and I find her paintings really appealing. She says the following about her pieces: "my compositions are simple still-life studies with clean backgrounds to make easier for individuals to make a connection. Food triggers memories and emotion, I like that people can bring something of themselves to the artworks." Pretty great, no? A few of my favorites are below, but you can view more of her work on her website, here.

"Biscuits in a line," Egg tempera on gesso board, 19.5" x 23.5"

"Fabs," Egg tempera on gesso board, 17.7" x 23.5"

"Krispy Kreme Dozen," Egg tempera on gesso board, 27.5" x 19.7"

Artist #2: Ria Hills
Hills is another talented artist who has tackled similar subject matter. She's a pastel artist, which I find very interesting (don't find as many pastel artists as painters), and her work is amazingly realistic yet painterly, which I like. She also does amazing pet portraits and a few cute paintings of dogs in goggles (haha!) that you should check out if you're an animal-lover. Take a look at her work below and view more of it on her website, here.

"Ice cream cone," pastels

"Cupcakes," Pastels

"Foiled Chocolate Bar," Pastels

Now if that doesn't make you want to eat a sweet treat, I don't know what will!? But I'm sticking to my guns. Day 3 and I'm feeling really powerful and very cleansed already :) As I told one of my students yesterday, after every meal in December my mind and body said to me, "where's my cookie?" Those days are over. Yay for detox!

For another AMAZING artist painting desserts and food in a very different way, check out the third artist in this post from back in May, Lee Price. I adore her work. 

Have a delicious day!

Namaste,
Mary Catherine