Painting with Extra Sprinkles

Happy February everyone! When students (or fellow artists) ask me what is it I like most about oil painting, I can't help but think of the buttery texture.  In fact, as all you know who bake and paint, fresh tube oil paint is quite a bit like icing...

Perhaps, because of Valentine's Day (which is also my Dad's birthday) approaching I found myself thinking about California pop artist Wayne Thiebaud (now 90 years old), aka the  iconic"cake and pie" painter. 

As some of you may know, I've read that Wayne struggled at first with his series of dessert paintings, until he found a Manhattan gallery who was interested in showing them. In the era of Warhol and Lichtenstein, he was an immediate sensation and the rest, as the say, is icing on the cake. And today, I recently saw that one of Mr. Thiebaud's cake paintings sold at Sotheby's for 1.7 million dollars--not bad for a cake.

In honor of Valentine's Day, Wayne, and desserts in general, I thought I'd do a quick cupcake study. I had a blast with the sprinkles, which were done with a knife.  This made me think about Sprinkles--the LA cupcake chain coming to Denver and I hope it's soon. If you've been to a Sprinkles you know what I mean...

Also, over the weekend I was lucky enough to get to give a brief talk about the Denver art scene to a great team of KSU Students--If any of you stop by it was great to meet you and and good luck with your project!  Go Wildcats!