Toast impressionist inspired by Edvard Munch and other masters

Vermeer's 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' was partly expressed through cheese

An art enthusiast has been recreating famous masterpieces in toast form as part of her lockdown lunchbreaks.

Caroline Barnes, 56, from Portsmouth, has been producing toast impressionism since she began working from home in March.

She said she chose to express her frustration at the impact of the virus through the medium of bread.

Her first work, based on Edvard Munch's The Scream, was prompted by the cancellation of a planned holiday.

Munch's 'The Scream' was inspired by a holiday cancellation due to the coronavirus pandemic

Ms Barnes, a human resources worker at the University of Portsmouth, said lockdown had also put her monthly visits to the National Gallery on hold.

She said: "I thought I'd try to transfer the art I was missing to toast.

"I wanted to try and combine my passion for looking at art with the need to make lunch every day."

A picture of her reproduction of The Scream was posted on a staff forum to widespread acclaim from colleagues, prompting further works.

Ms Barnes said Wood's 'American Gothic' was "lovely to eat"

Ms Barnes said: "Although Grant Wood's American Gothic painting wasn't my favourite painting, it was lovely to eat.

"I made the woman's body a pig in a blanket and bacon makes everything taste better."

Ms Barnes said she struggled to eat blue artworks, which depended on the use of royal icing.

She said her lunchtime creations were partly inspired by a 2019 visit to Japan, where she saw "amazing food art" for the first time.