Tango til you drop

I've done two more tango paintings this week to add to my collection. The first one is called "Red tango dress" and features a couple dancing, she looking coy but aroused, with her lipsticked mouth open in passion, his face unseen under the hat, but his gaze focused on her, as he lifts her left arm high into the air, and swirls her around. The reason I like this image so much is the way the woman is lifting her right leg up to half wrap around the man's waist. The way the darkness between her open thigh disappears into the black of his jacket pulls the painting and the couple together, and makes the image more erotic. All their lower limbs lead the eye through the painting to that tantalising dark area. Her scarlet dress is flowing with the dance as he leads her from the light into the dark. And as usual I've used splatter to emulate the fast movements of the dancers.

The second painting, also a watercolour, is called "Tangoed" and shows a typical tango pose, an arched back and out-stretched leg for the woman, as she curls her left leg around the mans thigh, her head thrown back, her right arm straight as the man grips her hand, he dips her body to the ground, and firmly holds her waist. Again, their lower limbs are leading the eye to her groin area, that scintillating glimpse of upper thigh on show, the folds in the dress leading the eye to it and adding to the erotic-ness of the image. Again the splatter is used to show the movement in their bodies, without it the painting would look very static and boring. But the splatter shows that he's just moved his raised elbow, his head has jerked forward , and he's stamped his left foot down hard whilst she has just jerked her elbow, moved her legs and thrown her head back, causing her hair to swing behind her.

Plumbing jobs

I've just had the plumber around for a small but annoying plumbing job, he made a comment about one of the drawings I have on my bathroom wall, since it was sexual, and I'd done it. He knows full well I do erotic art. He laughed, shook his head and asked if I'd got any other pictures that weren't of blow jobs. Sure I have! and showed him some more erotic art. He laughed again and said if I could find someone to give him a blowjob he'd come and pose for me. "Ok" I said, "Are you serious?" "No, I'm not!", he said quite emphatically. Then....... just as he was leaving he said..... "This woman, who'd give me a blow job, is she nice, how old is she? or is it a man?" I laughed and said I could find him all three if he wanted - a man, if that was his choice, or a woman? Then I said he was a tart as I bet if I said the woman was in her fifties, overweight and had no teeth he'd say no. "Oh, I don't mind the no teeth bit" he said laughing again. "But", I said, "If I was to tell you she was eighteen, blonde and gorgeous, you'll be interested!" He replied "If you can find anyone like that I'll pose for you, every week, for a year!!!" ........... So, it looks like I've got a new model, anyone interested in joining him??

Jam and naked women

Why is it that I've been painting for years, have had a website for over five years but its only since I've told people I'm an erotic artist that their interest in me has manifested itself? Mmmm.... I wonder why! So last Saturday night whilst I'm standing chatting to friends in the pub, someone introduced me to a new face and was told that I'm an erotic artist. "Really?" she said, here we go, I thought, what's coming next and was totally unprepared for the question "Will you come and talk to the W.I?" - "What? Are you serious?" I asked and she agreed she was indeed!! "But I thought the W.I were all jam and Jerusalem, knitting and pretty flower arrangements, won't my subject matter curl the hair of the blue rinse brigade?" Apparently not! This particular group are easy going, very broad-minded and good fun and I've been booked to appear, to chat and tell them what I get up to.............. I can't wait!!!!!

Getting tied up

The nice thing about bondage, as far as an erotic artist is concerned, is that the ropes can make such interesting patterns and shapes. This was certainly the case with my latest white on black drawing. I wanted to make an interesting diamond pattern down the front of the female torso and between her naked breasts. And also to shine a light upon the model in such a way that the white of the ropes were the central part of the picture with her body the paler part of the image. To create this I had to shine the light from one side and lower down to high-light her breasts and thighs, whilst losing the dark side of her body into the black of the paper, adding interest to the image and taking away what would have been a very boring symmetrical picture if I'd made the two sides of her body even in tone. To blind-fold her certainly added to the erotic intensity of the image, and the fact that the lower knot is pulled into the flesh of her crotch certainly makes the image powerfully sexy too. I've called the picture "Daunted" - it seems the best summing up of what's happening in it.



And for some reason, the model said that after a couple of hours in this pose she's seriously considering taking up macrame.........

Sex in public

A few years ago on a visit to Argentina I went to see a tango show. Alright, I thought, a dance show, it'll be ok, quite interesting I suppose and wasn't at all prepared for the raw sexual buzz of the dancers. I sat there in the dark utterly mesmerised by the dance. Anyone who has seen tango will understand what I'm talking about and I will attempt to describe it here, but I know I'll fail dismally to describe it adequately. It was the sexy way the women are dressed, the gorgeous clingy dresses, slashed to the waist, full of sparkle and glamorous attire. Their fishnet tights, high heeled strappy sandals, their gleaming dark hair pulled back in a severe ponytail or bun, their Latin features inscrutable, dark flashing eyes, faces in concentration, scarlet lipstick, scarlet fingernails, scarlet dresses. And the men, all brooding and darkly handsome with immaculate haircuts, in black suits, shining patent leather shoes, and maybe a fedora pulled low over their eyes. So before they've even started to move they're dressed sexily. And then, the music starts, and they start to dance, and their limbs, torsos and feet in perfect harmony flash across the stage. All so effortlessly, and yet it goes almost at the speed of light, and you can't believe how fast they're moving, with their legs intermingled and yet they don't get tangled up, and the man holds the woman as she dips and leans backwards over his leg, her open legs showing a glimpse of the top of the thigh, a flash of cleavage, as her head is thrown back in perfect harmony with the rest of her body. Then on to the next part and back again. One male dancer in particular fascinated me - he was a lot older than most of the dancers - maybe in his forties, and he danced with a girl half his age. He had a wolfish look about him, his greased black hair swept back, a wicked smile played around his lips and his eyes twinkled in knowing fun. The way he held the girl before the dance fascinated me, whereas most of the male dancers put their hands lightly on the girls backs, this guy had only one finger to guide her. Just one. So sexy, and dominating, and powerful. And as they danced, he twirled and spun her all over the place, always in control, always with just one finger on her back. And at the end of the dance she laughed into his eyes, accepting his dominance, knowing that she'd never dance with anyone else liked she danced with him, and acknowledging that she had kept up with him, even though he'd pushed her to the limits. It was like watching pure sex, on that red lit stage, and it fired me up for a desire to see more tango and to paint what I had seen.

I've just finished another tango painting. Its the third I've painted, but won't be the last because I adore doing them. They're so erotically charged, and I love to capture the moments when a couple are in harmony, such trust and empathy between them, as the woman arches her back over the man's arm, her body held weightlessly, as he watches her face, and she flings her head back in ecstasy. I've painted this picture "It takes two to tango" with a lot of scarlet and purples in the fluid background, lots of splatter emulating the movements, showing where they've danced from, the movements of their heads, arms and legs. Just a moment in time, and yet, the time it has taken to get there has to be shown within the painting otherwise it will look stilted and static. I love the scarlet of her dress, against the black of his trousers and tee shirt. His hat pulled down making him mysterious, her hair full of red lights, the dynamic diagonal of their bodies making the composition powerful and sexy, underlining the dance being about as much fun as you can have with your clothes on...

Since doing this painting, its given me a hunger to do another, and I know it won't be long before I'll be going again to see tango performed in the flesh, to sit in a darkened auditorium and watch spellbound as the dancers take the stage....

Words that turn me on....

........."The Arts Festival thanks you for your submissions to the Open Art Competition and Exhibition and is delighted to exhibit your work"...... such sexy words - along with "Hi Jackie, we're interested in a painting of yours that we've seen recently and wondered if we could come and see it again?" - Oh yes!!! Course you can!!........

Now I know that just because the arts festival want to hang three of my paintings, and the fact that someone wants to come and see one of my tiger paintings again, doesn't necessitate a sale on either count, its a start, and I'm happy that there's interest!

Some years ago I met a woman who really liked one of my paintings - it was a weird surreal painting she'd seen at an exhibition, and she absolutely raved over it! I must have bumped into her five or six times over the course of the next eighteen months, and everytime I saw her she mentioned this particular painting and how much she liked it, and wanted to come and see me, and view it again. It got to the point when I was just about to blow my top at her, for wasting my time even bringing up the subject, since she obviously had no intention of ever doing what she was promising, but then, one day, she came to see me, looked at the picture and said "I've just got to buy it!" and I realised that it had sort of haunted her in someway - she had fallen in love with it, and just had to own it, to view it everyday, and that her life wouldn't ever be complete until she had purchased it. And that, for me, is why people should buy art - because they love it so much, they need to look at it because it fills something within them. I love it when that happens - particularly when its something I've painted and people make an emotional connection to it.

So, just because someone has seen one of my paintings, doesn't mean they're going to buy it, but it might set an idea growing, and they just might come back to me, and they might just buy it at some time in the future........ maybe...

Giving people what they want

Chatting with a male friend the other day, he made the comment that everything I do is sexy. "I wish" I replied and he said that as far as he was concerned, it was the case (and he's certainly known me longer than most people). So perhaps I am, I'd like to think I was (don't we all??) but he went on to say that I was "Psychoerotic" and since I was pretty sure he'd made that word up on the spur of the moment, I questioned what it meant - "Having the ability to plant the erotic in someones mind" he said. Mmmmm..... ok, interesting thought - I certainly like the description, so I'll keep it! So I've been thinking about what he said, and the thoughts appeal to me, that I have an ability to plant the erotic in someones head through my art. That's certainly what I strive to do. I like people, I like the interaction of people, I like to hint at sex, the erotic, the suggestion of pleasure.



But I can see what he means when I look at my latest drawing (done a couple of days before his comments, incidentally). I wanted to do a sexy image of a woman inviting a lover to join her. I particularly liked the idea of just a hint of interesting and intriguing bright red on an otherwise black and white image, it makes the image far sexier! The white high-lighting the skin of the woman's thighs and buttocks, as the rest of her body fades into the black background. She languidly lies back looking at the viewer, her smile an invitation to join her, as she gently raises a leg and pulls off her red panties. I loved doing the drawing, and needless to say it's called "Invitation"!!

So maybe he's right - I am psychoerotic - what do you think?

Winning

I spent all morning yesterday sorting out three paintings to enter into a local art competition. The pictures were already painted and framed, I just had to sort out the details for the stipulations for entering them in the competition - on the back of the painting had to be the name of artist (I knew that bit!), media and price (I always do that anyway), and contact details (does that mean just a phone number, or address as well? - ok, I'll do both), and on the front there had to be all the details again, written on a label, attached with string, so that the label can hang down infront of the painting. Ok, I did that. Then I had to put cardboard protective corners on each painting, and as the bloody things wouldn't stay on, had to attach them with masking tape, wrap all three paintings in bubble wrap, put them in my carrying bag, and fill out the form. Name, address, names of paintings, media, price and size - what on earth do they want size for? And in inches or centimetres? I work in inches, but I bet they work in centimetres, and I presume they mean the outside size of the frame, and not the size of the actual painting inside the frame? Find a tape measure, measure them, and put the figures on the form. I still can't think why they want the measurements - they've got the paintings, what difference does having the measurements figures make? Pack the whole lot into the car and drive to the venue (a new one for me, although I've entered this competition before, it was at a different place last year). I found it easily enough, and handed my paintings in, paid the hanging fees, they didn't want the bloody cardboard protective corners I'd so carefully applied, so I had to remove them all again and got the bloody masking tape stuck to all the bubble wrap, had a brief chat and came away again. So now I've got to wait til the end of the week to see whether they've been accepted, or rejected, in which case I'll have to go and collect any rejects next weekend, and the ones that have been accepted will be hung and judged along with the others in due course. It'd be nice to win the top prize, or even any prize. Last year I didn't win anything. This year I've got different pictures, and I rate a couple of them, the third might be a bit weird for the judges, but we'll see. None of them are erotic. I was supremely pissed off last year when I saw one of the paintings that won a "distinction" prize. As it was an absolute and exact copy of another artists work. She runs local art workshops and paints in a particular style, and the subject matter is of a particular type, so very easily recognised, and the painting that got the award last year was a direct copy of her work, most probably done on one of the workshops. So was I angry? Yes, I bloody was!! That my artwork which was unique, individual and not plagiarised, didn't win against a direct copy of someone elses work. I almost said something at the time to the organisers, but thought it would look like "sour grapes" on my part, so didn't. Do I wish I had? Maybe.


But, as far as winning is concerned - I won the top prize in a local art exhibition a few years ago, and that was a brilliant experience. There were three categories, and an overall top prize, which the judge judged on "If there was a fire, and I had to run out of the building with just one painting, which one would it be?" - and that was the prize I won, with one of my tiger portraits "Burning bright". Infact the judge liked it so much, he bought it from me afterwards, which doubly made my day - I sang at the top of my voice all the way home!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!

Promotion promotion promotion

Discussing with a local pub landlord last night about my being part of a forth-coming art exhibition he wants to hold in his pub one day in August I realised that I'll actually be part of six exhibitions held locally during August. That's fine, I can fit them all in, and as they're spread over the month, I'm confident I can work out the logistics of shunting pictures around to each venue. But will it be worth it? Will it bring in any sales for me? Will it promote my artwork? Conjour up future commissions? I live in hope that it will. I have to. Its a lot of hard work though, setting up an exhibition. Hanging around to talk to people, to promote what I do. Or else I just drop off my pictures at a gallery, and someone else does the setting up, and I go home, and fervently wait, in hope, with fingers crossed. And when I return somebody might say - oh someone was in asking after you earlier, they hoped you'd be here. And you think, bugger, I've missed a sale through that. But if I went and sat, and sat..... and sat..... at a gallery (and I've done that, on many occasions!) no-one comes in, no-one is interested, until perhaps five minutes before the end of the exhibition, when someone will come in and for the next half hour they'll tell you ALL about their brothers neighbours cousin who is a brilliant artist - have you heard of them? (I never have, but I smile sweetly at them). And then you go home, without a sale. And then you'll talk to someone who's interested in art, and visits art galleries regularly, and they ask where you exhibit, and why haven't they seen your work before? And you wonder why they haven't either, when you do your best to push your art, and exhibit where and when you can, and they've never even heard of you! So what do I do wrong I ask myself? And the answer is probably - nothing. Its just the way it is, trying to sell art. You live in hope that you can paint a picture that someone will like, and want, and want to pay for, and have room on their wall to hang it on. That's why I'd rather do commissions, because then I know I'm painting something that someone actually wants. Exhibitions are basically just advertising the fact that I paint, and what I paint, and how I paint. If I make a sale, its a bonus. Its also good to see what other artists are doing, and meet them, have a chat and compare notes.

So I'm not expecting to sell many pictures in August....... but I live in hope!

Sex on legs

The minute I saw the photo of Cherrie half-naked, draped in her pink and purple feather boa and fishnets, I knew I wanted to draw it. Such a sexy image, I found it very inspirational for an erotic artist - I just hadn't envisioned how difficult I would find it to do! I started off full of artistic momentum, secure within myself of my own talent, capabilities and abilities, and decided to do the picture as a watercolour painting with a bit of drawing perhaps for the detail. So that's what I did. .......And ....came up against a mental brick wall!! How can the picture look so stilted? How come there's no life to it? Mmmmmmm.... do it again, perhaps as a pastel on black paper, hence I'd get instant colour and the fact it would be on black would make the image more vibrant and colourful and sexy. So that's what I did for my second attempt. And.......... that was wrong too!!! How can it be ? Mmmmmm..... more thinking..... and a couple of days later tried it again using the inktense pencils that I love, instant colour, instant washes, tiny details where needed, and big colour washes elsewhere. Third time lucky, surely? Nope, that didn't work either! What on earth was I missing??? Think. Think......... Racking my brains! Then it dawned on me! What I was trying to do was copy the photo of Cherrie, and whilst it was a clear photo with enough detail, and showed me exactly what I needed to see to produce a painting, what it was capturing was a MOMENT in time. A split second, freezing Cherrie in her movements, into ONE set image. And that wasn't at all what the thing was about. Not for me. It was about her dancing, her movements, her sexuality, her provocative hip movements, her smile, the way she dipped her head, the way she moved her hands sensuously up her body, the way the boa twitched and writhed, and blurred into movement as it was twirled around her body. That was what I wanted to paint - the whole build-up to that very moment, when the camera caught the image. So, I started again, and that was what I painted! And here it is - in watercolour, with the paint splattered on, to show her dancing, grooving, gyrating, provoking and showing her innate sexuality, her appeal and allure, her desirability and sensuality. Hiding her face under a hat, thrusting her hips out, revelling in the sensation of fishnet hold-ups and her sexy high heels, the feather boa a lovely accompaniment to her erotic dance, hiding her skin, flashing part of her left breast and a nipple. Dancing to her sexual beat. Sooo.............. How did I do?

Black feathers

Whilst thinking of ideas for ways of doing the sexy picture of Cherrie cavorting in her boa I thought it would make a nicely erotic picture to draw a woman wearing a black feather boa, on a black background, but only capturing the white of her skin through the feathers. I also wanted the solid female flesh as a nice contrast for the softness of the feathers, just picking out the profile of her breast, the curve of her back falling down to her buttocks, a hint of thigh, her arm bent to add to the tightness of the composition. So having done it, I think it works well enough as an image. I love doing these white on black drawings, just picking out the details of light against the pure black of the paper. Not every part of her body needs to be drawn or every feather in the boa for the viewer to understand the picture. Good job - it would be a nightmare to depict every feather in a boa! The picture is called "froth of feathers" although I think the model would call it "spitting feathers" as she said wearing it, was like being attacked by a hundred chickens!!

Is it exciting?

.............Well is it? Waiting to have your picture painted. Knowing the artist is going to work on your image, is thinking about you, trying to capture your essence, although she's not met you yet. She's working from her knowledge of you, from a photograph infront of her and a few all too brief written words, and maybe the echo of a far distant voice resonating in her head. And you know she's thinking of you. Now. Right this minute. How does that make you feel? Uneasy? Disconcerted? Or excited and exhilarated? Full of hope and expectation that she'll capture how you were feeling when the photo was taken, that sexy pose, the smile on your face, the twinkle in your eye, your mind full of erotic playfulness and the knowledge that you were turning your audience, and yourself on, for the pleasures of hot satisfying rampant sex to follow. How does that make you feel? How does it make the artist feel? Two people who've never met, connecting through an existing image, and creating a new image between them........