Using cake as a canvas has set a Knapdale chef up for her first joint art exhibition in Mandeville.

Gore chef and cake decorator, Jude Taylor, of Taylor Made Cakes, has been turning cakes into edible art for the past 36 years.  

Now, she is showing another side to her artistic endeavours with an art exhibition at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre gallery.

Ms Taylor, who has been painting for the past decade, said creating her “postcard size” pieces was similar to cake decorating.

“[It is about] putting colours and ideas and composition together to make something that's pleasing to the eye,” Ms Taylor said. 

Her first major exhibition, Landscapes and Small Scapes, featuring 32 small but mighty paintings on wood, is on until the end of November. 

The exhibition also had ten nature-inspired oil on canvas landscape paintings by Allan Thompson, who had his first exhibition at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre gallery last year. 

Mr Thompson said he took up painting in his retirement. 

"They don't all come out perfect, so when you get a reasonable one, it's quite satisfying,” Mr Thompson said.

Allan Thompson's slightly blurred landscapes are on show as part of his second joint exhibiton at the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre gallery until next month. Photo: Gemma Sinclair

Ms Taylor said putting her postcards out there was a challenge.

"it's just … a leap of faith,” Mrs Taylor, whose paintings were made of recycled wood from Mitre 10 Mega Dunedin, said.

"Putting it out for other people [and seeing] whether they like it or not or, yeah, it's a bit daunting,” she said. 

Most of the 42 paintings in total could be purchased from the Croydon Aviation Heritage Centre gallery.

gemma.sinclair@alliedmedia.co.nz