Let me paint cake.

Posted by on June 16, 2012 in Uncategorized | 22 Comments

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I’m going to deviate from dogs in this post (thank GOD, you say), as I feel I need to share these incredible cakes with you. Not actually share- don’t be silly!- but you can look at them. They were made by my lovely friend Nicole, who has a gorgeous blog at afternooncrumbs.com. Warning: it’s basically cake porn. She’s very clever in the kitchen and the ones in the blue cases are in fact gluten-free, but you wouldn’t know it because they taste great and actually very gluten-like.

Which reminds me. Last month I thought I was very witty and for my friend’s birthday I made her a completely fat-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, egg-free, flour-free cupcake:

…because it was made of oil paint, you see?! I actually used a photo of Nicole’s as the cases were the same pink that adorns Emma’s bedroom. It went down very well- by that I don’t mean she ate it with a cup of Earl Grey, I mean she was excited to receive it! I really enjoyed painting it, with the added bonus that I made less mess than if I’d actually ventured into the kitchen. I’ll leave the baking to Nicole, but I do have plans to paint a supersized version on a much larger canvas in the future, as I think the detail on that scale would look great.

All this cake talk reminds me to tell you that I don’t only paint animals- as much as I love to- but sometimes I have a play around with different ideas. You’ll see on my portfolio page four paintings of girls eating and drinking- they look a bit random as individual images so I wanted to show you what they look like in real life:

The idea was that this was to look like some sort of girly tea party- although possibly the randomest tea party ever, with G&T, frozen yoghurt and wine… I won’t name names, but I used photos of my friends for it so that it was personal. Why no faces then, you ask? It’s just my opinion, but I feel that unless a photo is specifically a portrait of someone then it can feel a little strange to have faces staring down at you from the wall. These images are more representative of mood and feeling than actual people; I wanted them to be a lighthearted reflection on the modern twenty-something girl. They are hung in an apartment in Miami, which I think is apt as it is such a vibrant, social city.

A particularly vibrant, social Miami resident is Cooper, and he makes up my allotted canine quota for this post: 

I caught up with him when we were visiting recently. He looks a bit startled by my death-grip around his neck but I assure you we get along great. Also, if you can see past my abnormally large forehead then you will see another of my paintings. It’s of massive raspberries. ‘Nuff said.

To wrap up this post and continue with the tenuous food/beverage theme that seems to have established itself, I was incredibly excited to find some frozen sloe berries in the freezer last week, which I had failed to make into sloe gin last summer. The reason being that after Mum had gone on a rampage and picked so many in Sussex, I was too embarrassed to buy enough gin for them all so banished them to sub-zero climes to sit out the winter. I finally got around to buying some more gin (I did get I.D’d at the supermarket though, which is always a low point) so during one of the many rainy days we’ve been having I got down to it:

That be all!

Kim x

22 Comments

  1. Sandy
    July 3, 2012

    Dogs, food & beverages…the things I live for. Bring them on!

    Reply
  2. nisha
    July 3, 2012

    ALL THE BEST KIM
    THOSE PAINTINGS ARE PERFECT (JUST LIKE YOU)
    LOVE YOU.

    Reply
  3. Chris Pearce
    July 4, 2012

    Amazing paintings Kim. Your dogs and cat painting are just so life like and capture the animals so closely.
    Love Maggie Mayhem on Twitter and we are keenly following Andy on the BBC surrounded by our 4 crazy Spaniel’s Amber, Rusty, Petil and Francesca and our daughters visiting St Bernard.

    Reply
  4. Julia
    July 6, 2012

    Your paintings are great and your blog is fun! Keep up the good work!

    Reply
  5. Kris Hawke
    July 7, 2012

    You have a wonderful Gift the paintings are brilliant. Dare I say more difficult that hitting a TB.

    Reply
  6. Anne
    July 8, 2012

    I’m sitting here drinking a cup of jasmine tea and a cup cake that looked half as good as your oil painting would go down a treat!

    Reply
  7. Pat
    July 8, 2012

    Love your Borders and the paintings of them !.All your portraits are great and the cake ones are fun.

    Reply
  8. Leigh Mathieson
    July 8, 2012

    I love cupcakes, cats and dogs so LOVE this post!

    Reply
  9. Jennifer Learmonth
    July 9, 2012

    Real swell post.

    Reply
  10. Linda Arthur
    July 9, 2012

    Love the doggie paintings…….pehaps a great Irish Wolfhound dog next…not many people can get them right! One would go just right with your 2 Terriers…big, gentle & loyal.
    Devasted for Andy but he’ll come back stronger…hope you two have a break away…time to re-cooperate….have fun.

    Reply
  11. Helen
    July 9, 2012

    Love your paintings – you are so talented and your blog is very amusing!

    Reply
  12. Barbara Bruce
    July 10, 2012

    Beautiful work, Kim!

    Reply
  13. cj
    July 10, 2012

    Love the cake paintings. And nice blog. But could I gently point out that you should relish the days that you get ID’ed. Because one sad day… you won’t! Best wishes from cj.

    Reply
  14. Maria Burke
    July 11, 2012

    Enjoyed reading your website. Your writing is fun, interesting and quirky so I think you should embark on that novel you’ve always wanted to write. Go for it and enjoy the gin – Slainte!

    Reply
  15. Claire
    July 11, 2012

    I really like the idea of not showing the faces of your fiends. I preserves a level of anonymity, that all of us are lacking in this age of social media, and which I am sure you are way too well aware of!
    The cup cake pictures are great! You are so talented. Your pick of colors is truely amazing.
    Loved the bit on buying the gin – I often get that sense of shame when I order the sixth pint of the evening at the bar!

    keep up the good work!

    Reply
  16. Akhila
    July 11, 2012

    Your paintings are as gorgeous as you Kim, specially the animal paintings. Just loved them. It’s amazing to know the way you think about each painting.

    Reply
  17. Abi O'Dea
    July 11, 2012

    wow! these painting are really amazing. I love the animal portraits. Im into art as well but my main interest is animal portraits but I can never quite get how to do them so that they look life like. I just wandered if you had any tips on how to do this. :)

    Reply
  18. alec
    July 12, 2012

    sainsbury basic gin – kudos for keeping it real….!

    Reply
  19. ami
    August 10, 2012

    Had to giggle a bit upon seeing the first picture. Thought that you and Judy probably get along swimmingly over cakes.

    Amazing paintings btw. :)

    Reply
  20. annoymous
    September 11, 2012

    pictures of the 4 girls is amazing, very different! also enjoy reading you blogs, rather witty! keep ‘em coming x

    Reply
  21. Nadine
    September 12, 2012

    Really like the cupcake one, but the 4 of the girls eating and drinking are brilliant, very quikry and sum up me and my girls perfectly haha. Keep up the good work. mmmmm now all I can think of is cake lol x

    Reply

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