Cake! magazine by Australian Cake Decorating Network Sept 2019 Cake! Magazine | Page 60

DO YOU HAVE A VISUAL ARTS
BACKGROUND OR WAS HAND-PAINTING
CAKES SOMETHING YOU FELL INTO?
I have always loved art – it is my passion
and if I could paint all day, I would! I have
always been artistic. I have a background in
canvas painting and children’s murals but it
was just a hobby. I never studied or gained
any formal art qualifications other than
GCSE (UK General Certificate of Education)
at school.
MOST OF YOUR CAKES FEATURE
HAND-PAINTED FLORALS. WHAT’S
YOUR FAVOURITE FLOWER TO PAINT?
I absolutely love roses, I love to paint them.
When I first started painting flowers, I found
roses to be very difficult due to the layers,
but now I love painting them!
WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE COLOURS/
MEDIUMS TO PAINT WITH? My favourite
medium is cocoa butter mixed with edible
dusts. I love that you can get a really bold
finish, almost like an oil painting.
WHAT TYPE OF BRUSHES WOULD YOU
RECOMMEND A BEGINNER INVEST IN?
I love Pro Arte synthetic brushes and have
been using them for a few years now. They
are great quality brushes. I have also recently
used brushes by Caking It Up and they are
very good too so I will be also using these
from now on.
WHAT ARE YOUR TIPS FOR
ACHIEVING REALISM WHEN
PAINTING? Paint what you see, not how
you think it should look. For example,
if you are painting a portrait and don’t
see a line to define one side of the nose,
don’t paint it there. Work out where the
darkest to lightest shades of the subject
are and shade them correctly. If you are
referring to a coloured image and are
struggling to work out the shading, edit
the image so it’s black and white. That
should help.
YOU’RE NOW TEACHING
INTERNATIONALLY. DO YOU PREFER
TO CREATE OR TEACH, OR DO BOTH
HAVE THEIR OWN ADVANTAGES?
I love both. I really love teaching as I
love to see my students develop and
create something they didn’t think
that they could create. I love to see
confidence grow. I also love spending
time creating new designs, it’s good to
be creative and they sometimes lead to
new ideas.