Hiding naughtiness

I've always loved clever paintings, the sort where something is hidden within the image and at first glance it seems like an innocuous painting, but then you realise there's actually a clever depiction of something which puts a whole new twist on what you're looking at. And it's even better if some people see it, and others don't. It makes it more fun, and amuses and entertains the one's who do see it. I suppose you'd call the images surreal - that half reality, half dream like state of putting diverse subjects together that normally wouldn't be.

I also like painting landscapes and hiding something within the contours of the painting. I did this oil painting for myself a few years ago, and still get a lot of pleasure looking at it - the dramatic moon lit sky, the parting clouds, crashing waves, sandy beach and rocky headland........ Oh, and the naked woman!

Recently, I've been asked if I'd be able to paint a landscape with an underlying erotic theme - the sort where adults would see the erotica, but young children wouldn't. It's an interesting proposition for me - the sort of thing I adore painting. But..... how to hide the erotica is the tricky part - whether to use the entwined bodies as the landscape itself, making the hills and valleys with the odd bush sprouting up in prominent places! Or just to paint the landscape but have the erotic couples hidden amongst the writhing trunks of gnarled tree trunks, or secreted amongst the fast flowing waters of a stream, lovers entwined together in the craggy crevices of rocks and lichen covered rocky outcrops or just hinted at amongst the greenery of shrubs and foliage. The ideas are endless...... and exciting!

I know I'd get great satisfaction out of doing it - and hope that others would out of seeing it.