No. 767 Sweet, Sweet Pear Tart with Primrose

Sweet, Sweet Pear Tart with Primroses

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

I went into the French Bakery on Valentines Day hoping to find some extra special holiday desserts. Not a great idea. They were almost completely wiped out. What was left was this unusual looking pear tart. The pears had been marinated in a purple sauce and had a very pretty translucency to them. Oh, yes it was pretty tasty too.

No. 766 Truffle Tart French Pastry with Carnations

Truffle Tart French Pastry

Oil on Gessobord

5" x 7"

Click to Bid

I vote this the best dressed pastry I've painted. Just look at that snappy chocolate fan and dashing dark and white chocolate curl. Love at first site. It's also been the best tasting too. That bottom layer? Chocolate ganache, people, cho-co-late ganache. Enough said. :)

No.765 Lemon Meringue Tart with Primrose

Lemon Meringue Tart with Primrose

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

Click to Bid

When I go to the bakery to choose a pastry I stand and stand and stand in an agony of indecision. Which one will make a great painting? And more importantly, which one will be super yummy to eat after I'm finished? I always apologize to the girls behind the counter for taking so long to decide. I explain that I'm trying to choose a pastry to paint a picture of and they are, quite honestly, not impressed. Perhaps people are painting pictures of pastries all the time?

No. 764 Brazilian Mocha French Pastry

Brazilian Mocha French Pastry with White Chocolate Wedge Cap and Tulips

Oil on Gessobord

5" x 7"

Click to Bid

My daughter is very excited about this whole painting French pastries thing. It's the very first time I've ever heard her say excitedly, "Mom, go paint!" The reason of course is because we share the pastry when I'm finished painting it. The difference between me and Meg, though, is out of the five pastries I've painted she really liked one or two and I really liked them ALL. :)

No. 763 Raspberry Mousse French Pastry with Carnations and Mums

Raspberry Mousse French Pastry with Carnations and Mum

Oil on Gessobord

6" x 6"

Click to Bid

I've been taking the most amazing online class with Dreama Tolle Perry called "Once Upon a Time in Provence". Not only does she try to teach you how to paint in her colorful, loose style but she's throwing in a lot of armchair travel too. In the first week's class she had us painting photos of French pastries. Those exercises are below. I was so inspired, I visited a local French bakery to find my own French pastries to paint. The painting above is the first in the series.

From Dreama's exercises:

No. 762 Cloud Study

Cloud Study

9" x 12"

Oil on Canvas

Whoa! It's been a mighty long time since my last post. We had a wonderful time with lots of family over the holidays. January was filled with home remodeling. I've always been one to spend extra money on travel but we finally decided something had to be done about the 30 year old flooring in our home. Somehow that led to a massive decluttering event and the decision to paint most of the walls. When you give a mouse a cookie right? The house isn't completely put back together yet but we are getting close.

Today's painting is from my class cloud demo. We are studying clouds for the entire month. I had fun painting this four times while demonstrating atmospheric perspective. Kind of a meditative process, painting clouds.