Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I’m back this week with a dose of realism. This time, I’m painting delectable baked goods with a high degree of detail. And, by the way, you can check out these paintings in my Etsy shop here and here.

I have to confess, I’ve been wanting to paint doughnuts for a while… and cakes, pies, cream puffs, and so on and so forth. I hesitated for two reasons. One, it has been done before (the kiss of death for many artistic ideas) and, two, these things are decadent, indulgent, carrying little meaning. Unless, I suppose, we look at them as symbols of our society’s downfall, what with the obesity epidemic and everything.

I have written before, however, about how inspired I was to paint all the bread I found at our local bakeries here in Germany. And so I did.

The thing about painting with realism is that the act becomes more about looking and less about conveying a concept. Inevitably, though, I always find myself thinking about the object itself, the hands that made it, its uniqueness, and the feelings it evokes in the viewer. I really appreciate the Old World preservation of the local bakery and its ages-old commitment to provide daily fresh, baked goods. So that is partly what I meditate on as I complete these small works.

But mostly, I’d say looking at doughnuts just makes me feel happy and sometimes I think it is important to simply please yourself.