Jenny Muncaster has put her tasty art on the walls of two local restaurants. TRACIE BEARDSLEY meets the artist who makes her work out of a meal...

WHILE television chefs are teaching the country to put more art in cookery, Jenny Muncaster is inverting their message - and putting more cookery in art.

This 34-year-old Winchester woman is keen to include all kinds of cuisine, from cod and chips to cordon bleu in her larger-than-life, dishes all over the walls of several Hampshire restaurants, she is something of a dab hand at

food-flavoured interior design.

If you dine at Hunter's Restaurant in Winchester or Berties Restaurant in Romsey, you cannot miss her magnificent murals inspired by their menus.

Although food is her big passion, Jenny is happy to turn her talented hand to non-edible subjects, too.

Working from The Colour Factory Gallery and Studios in Winchester, she can paint a picture to celebrate your birthday, wedding, anniversary or new home.

She revealed: "Although I trained as a textile artist, I knew I wouldn't end up in textiles - I was

frustrated by the small scale. It's the scale of murals that I find so exciting. You get less bogged down with the itsy-bitsy bits, it makes me more abstract and helps to develop my painting.

Her partner Sandy Sanderson, 46, is an interior decorator and specialist painter and they have pooled their talents on a number of projects. Typically, Sandy uses his colour washing and marbling

techniques on walls or kitchen units to provide a background for Jenny's more detailed work.

As well as making beautiful rooms together, the creative couple produced a son, Ozzi, 19 months ago.

"In a way, having a baby has made me concentrate on what I really want to do, which is paint," said Jenny.

"Before he was born, I spent less time in the studio. I travelled around more, doing a bit of design work for hospitals and theatres. I wouldn't necessarily turn down that sort of work now, but it would have to fit in."

In fact, two weeks away from giving birth, she was laying a paved garden design for the Chicken Shed theatre Company in London.

Funded by The Arts Council, her garden design was full of dance and imagery associated with the theatre, but it is food that is

currently feeding her imagination. She is planning to hold an exhibition of her tastiest pictures later this year at The Hotel du Vin & Bistro in Winchester, where she staged shows in 1997 and 1998. "We do the exhibition there in such a novel way.

We don't hang up the paintings, they're set on easels among the food. It's a gastronomic event," she enthused.

Another reason for not hanging up her work, of course, is that some of her pictures already adorn the walls - as well as the menus - of this establishment.

One of the themes of the last exhibition was fish, so, she spent a day at Rick Stein's famous seafood restaurant in Padstow, Cornwall. Instead of simply focussing on the plat du jour, Jenny's depictions of that day told the whole story of the chef's fishy dishes.

She painted the fishermen and their boats, the early-morning auction, the work in the kitchen, the food on the plate plus Stein himself. All 50 or so pictures from the 1998 exhibition sold and she is hoping to repeat that success this year, when she will be highlighting chefs as a special subject.

For Jenny, the future looks as bright as one of her works of art. "A computer can't make a painting," she assured me. "Artists have to give something of themselves. Putting a brush in paint and making your mark - that's what it's all about."

Any chefs who would allow Jenny to paint their portraits for her forthcoming exhibition should contact her at The Colour Factory on 01962 870789.