Not all QUIET in the library

Before the exhibition was EVEN set up, it was a success!

A success because of a phone call I received a couple of days beforehand......

My contact at the library had rung with a piece of good news for me - she was setting up the programme of events for next year and when she got to the "International day for Women in Arts" she thought of me and said I was top of her list! And asked if I'd be interested in talking to a group at the library about my erotic art and taking along some pieces to show them. I said I'd be delighted to! She said that there would be a woman photographer, sculptor and textile worker there as part of the session, so it all sounds very upbeat and positive and I shall be delighted to be part of it!

And that was before I'd even set the exhibition up!

I set it up on Monday, on my own. I've set up exhibitions before, but they've been part of a group so I've not had to do all of it on my own before. When I've exhibited at Olympia for Erotica I've had a smaller stand and some help, so this time was  more involved. But, other than the carrying in of the artwork (heavy even without the benefit of a hot summers day!), it was ok. And the caretaker was a great help in letting me stay after the library was shut for the night, which gave me the extra time to put up my title cards, and the bio about me and my work. I was weary though, when I got back home, mentally and physically.

I'm delighted with the way it looks, it's my first proper solo exhibition and its one I'm proud of. It's a lovely light exhibition space and right by the front door so people can see it when they go on.

The decision about putting erotic art in was always going to be a moot point. I'd got the exhibition in the first place because of the brightly coloured vibrant abstracts I'd done. But, it's still a public place that children can go to and its not appropriate for them to see erotic art. But the library knew that and left it to me to decide what I felt I was happy with. To that end, I decided that it would be better for me to show all that I do, and not just the erotic stuff, whilst making the most of my brightly coloured abstracts as I know they are popular, regardless of the subject matter. So I took landscapes, animals, still life and dancers as well as the more acceptable erotic stuff.

Whilst I was setting up on Monday afternoon, a little girl of nine and her father passed by me. The child darted past each picture saying "I like that one, I like that one, I like that one" as she pointed to each in turn. All good, if she finds the art appealing. She said "Who painted all of these?" and I said "I did!" her father hadn't heard me say that, and he replied to her "Lots of people, darling" and I turned to him and said "No, I did them ALL". He looked taken aback and replied "In that case, you're very talented" and I smiled at him in his understanding. 

And later on, whilst I was putting up the brightly coloured erotic abstracts an older woman came in search of her husband who was looking at the art, and said to him "I like THAT!" and I turned and said a heartfelt "Thankyou!" as we made eye contact and smiled at each other. The art has valedation.

Yesterday when I popped in to see how things were progressing there were two youngish women there smiling at the "naughty picture" the "Tree of Life" picture that I'd taken as a framed print. It seems to be the most popular thing there, and they were smiling in understanding of what it was and what it depicted. The chief librarian was there, a man in his forties, and they pointed it out to him, and I smiled and asked him "Are you ok with hanging that picture in the library? Innocent eyes only see innocence in it, but adults see it for what it really is" He looked blankly at the picture and said "What? I don't know what you mean" I smiled, and the two other women smiled and pointed at it. He still looked blankly at it and it was obvious that he couldn't see it - one of the women pointed it out to explain it, and I smiled to myself. Children are obviously not the only ones with "innocent eyes"!!!!!!!

All fired up

The Burton library exhibition isn't abandoned totally.  Infact I think I'll be able to put quite a few pictures in. It's just that I won't be able to do as much for it as I had hoped for, originally. But that's ok. And I'll also be able to hang some of the more acceptable erotic ones there. Infact it was the brightly coloured abstracts like this one that got me the exhibition in the first place!

I appreciate that some of my work though, is totally inappropriate for a public library, so to that end, I'll also be putting in some small framed prints of tigers, other animals, and landscapes. Far more acceptable for some, I'm sure!!! LOL

I'm looking forward to it and know that some friends will be attending at some point over the fortnight to see what I'm exhibiting there and I'll appreciate their feedback. Stuart and his wife are going he tells me, and I know he'll let me know what he thinks of it. He's recently tried to get an article printed in the Guardian newspaper about his amusing experience of being drawn by me the first daunting time, but the paper say that they've only recently printed a similar article so have turned it away. Undeterred, as he's aware of the fickle natures of newspapers, he's trying another publication he thinks may be interested and rings me regularly with any news (yes, pun intended!!).

Last night I attended a meeting for one of the art groups I'm a member of to discuss feedback regarding recent exhibitions and the possibility of other venues in the area for new ones. The usual stuff. Afterwards in the bar a few of them stayed on for drinks and a social chat and the boyfriend of one of them joined his artist girlfriend and was happy to join the group. He's a nice easy going fella and I've known him many years. He sat back and listened as the chat went back and forth across the table. Talks of places to paint, and dates arranged for painting days, where you just set up your easel and paint a particular scene, but with the knowledge that others will be around if you don't want to be a lone woman out painting on your own. And then someone excitedly talked about using acrylics and how much she liked them after years of being a pastel painter, and then someone else excitedly talked of the new acrylic paints that don't dry instantly, but allow you to have a couple of days to still move the paint around if you need to, and at that I really perked up and eagerly asked to know more about them.  Only for the flat phrase to fall on the converstion from the boyfriend overhearing it all "ART GEEKS!" he said. And we stopped and looked at him inquisitively. "You're all ART GEEKS!" he said again, and I grinned. I suppose we are. But it's because we're excited about it, and love to hear of new techniques or paints or where to buy the cheapest watercolour paper or best types of pastels. We're art geeks!  I agree!!!!!

Looking back - and forward

Well it's been a funny sort of year - certainly art-wise I've not done as much as I'd have liked and yet when I look back I have actually achieved an awful  lot - I've continued with the Fantasy Fannies abstracts, painting more of the brightly coloured and highly popular Queyntes and Tarses in acrylics. That in turn led on to the innovative "Living flame" style of painting - translucent colours glazed over each other creating pretty colours to dramatic effect. As well as that I explored  making other abstracts, playing with colour and shape and creating fabulously exciting  paintings like "Interplay", "Wishful thinking", "Camouflage" and "Black jacket".

The "Fantasy Fannies" were also featured very favourably  in Jade magazine which helped to raise their profile as did the radio interview I did at Erotica.

I've also done the "S & M" watercolour painting - hiding the initials within the landscape, so only the people in the know know its there - I really enjoy hiding jokes and secret messages within my paintings and the people who commission them love the joke of it too - the ultimate conversation piece on your wall!

I've been told that I have a reassuringly friendly and professional way of drawing people that puts them at their ease, so that first time nude sitters feel relaxed and comfortable in my company - and the experience is not at *all* as scary as they expected!!!! That's good to hear, then!!!! LOL

I've sold paintings to USA and Canada, and exhibited at Erotica at Olympia, London, for the second year running and feel more established there as an exhibitor. It's hard work, but good fun, and I want to do more art fairs next year as I haven't yet found a gallery that I like the look of to sell my work, and who, equally, likes the look of me. Perhaps I need to go to London to seek my fortune in that direction.................like Dick Whittington ........and his cat! :)

I'm still busy with the local art group that I'm connected with, as well as the Guild of Erotic Artists, and get a lot of help, advice, networking, support and satisfaction from being connected with them. Through them I meet lots of artists and photographers and people generally interested in art and the creative spirit, and that helps in turn to feed mine. Plus, I get some intriging conversations, usually of a very non vanilla subject matter!! :)

I've met some interesting people - quite a few men have offered themselves to pose for me, including one from San Francisco who occasionally comes to England on business and is very keen to be part of my creative output. And  a few others who I may be able to use at some point but the most important one was at the end of the year when  my new male model came into my life and after chatting to him for a while I felt that we could do some work together, and I'm delighted that the drawings of him I've done so far are of a high standard and I hope that it continues in that manner. The fact that he likes the same rock music as me, helps considerably!!! (if he's been a Westlife fan, I'm not so sure we could have worked together! LOL).

Stuart with his outgoing personality and desire to help was a good friend to me throughout the year, and through him I did the talk to his local writers group which in turn led to me being offered a solo exhibition at the library next summer.

And added to the interesting people, is the publicist who has recently contacted me. He doesn't live in England but did for a while, and has a lot of contacts. We've had a few preliminary conversations and I like what we've discussed so far but its very early days yet and may not be exactly what I'm lookiong for. But, if it goes the right way, and its too soon to say yet, I may be painting some very interesting and exciting erotic art next year...............watch this space! :)

So, into the new year, and I've already got a very interesting commission to do - for a male witch - a "Goddess" painting - seven heads of the same goddess, in whatever style I like, in whatever medium I like. But.......each goddess has to be recognisable. This one has got me thinking, and now Christmas is out of the way I can spend more time concentrating on it, because this is a big one and needs a lot of deep thought and focus. Also, I want to put some "magic" into the painting, somehow. As this isn't an ordinary painting. It's a special one, for a special person, for an extra-special reason, and that unique specialness should show within it. So, that makes me think that I may end up painting it twice - firstly as a practice painting to get the creative juices moving, and then as the proper one, the one when I dig into my spirit and pour it into the painting, that's when the magic appears........... and that's what I want to build on next year, making magical paintings for people. The sort that talks to your spirit, your soul, the sort that you want on your walls because its an extension of who you are.

That's what I paint.

Queynte 16

Here she is - the next one in the Fantasy Fanny group - introducing Queynte Number 16.

It's surprised me how colourful she is (and I painted it!!!!) - a veritable rainbow of colour in this one. But those were the colours I saw when I looked at the photo I was working from, and that's what I've painted in this feminine abstract. I love them all though, whether they're bright or more muted colours, they all have their own personality and character. Perhaps they mimic the personality of the woman they belong to - but either way they are bright and beautiful, vibrant and full of life and vivacity.

What do you think?

It works!

After starting the working painting for Fitzy the other week, and not being entirely happy with it, I re-started the second "working painting" soon after and was able to finish it this week. So, since I was happy with it, I now hoped that he would be! So, I sent him the image and awaited the reply......................

And................. He loves it! YAY! So, now I can get on and paint it properly onto the large canvas he wants it on as the finished piece.

It is slightly different to the original "Living flame" painting in that I've added a few more darks to this masculine image. The main reason being that a mans body is more "square" than the rounded shape of a woman, and because there are less curves within a masculine body, I had to take away from the symmetry of the image by changing the balance between light and dark, shown mostly as the blue tones and the light yellow tones here. I love the bright colours within the image though, and the use of the bright red in certain areas adds a zizz to the more muted tones. It was also interesting to see how the hands developed, in the original, I did the hands as two different colours and that idea didn't work at all. This one does though, with the subtle variation in colour between the lights and darks on the hands. There's also a lot of other colour happening in and around the body, the subtle changes in colour add a lot of vibrant interest to this image. I love it!!

And I love this style of painting. Its difficult to do, but I love the effect of it. And shall love transferring this image onto canvas. It means re-drawing the whole thing on to a larger surface, and it means starting the whole thing again, but now I have the "working painting" to work from, the thought process has gone into the original, and in theory all I need to think about now is the technicality of getting the image to look good on a large canvas as the finished piece.

But, before I do all of that, I have to do a working painting of the first "Fantasy Willie" that Fitzy wants to accompany this "Living flame" image of him. Because the two are to be hung as a pair, together, so the colours have to be the same, or at least not to clash. So, that will have to be painted before I can start the canvas of this painting, just incase there are any changes I have to make to this one before I start painting them both properly. They are siblings, and have to created as such.

Brothers in paint! :)

Actually, no, that's not quite right, they are both studies of Fitzy, so perhaps they are "aspects" rather than "brothers"............................... either way, they are connected to each other.

Taking the abstraction a little further

Since I started doing the abstracts of the fannies, I've wondered if I could use abstracts for general erotic art, and have been following those ideas through with the three paintings I have here. One of the reasons I decided to do them, was to take the paintings with me to Erotica to see what sort of general response they get. I know the visitors to Erotica are used to seeing erotic art there, and some people may go with a view to buying a new painting for their wall, so I stand a reasonable chance of selling some, I hope.

The first one is called "Out and proud" and is a blue green and orange torso. I enjoyed painting the various shapes within the shadows and form of the body. The title relates to the state of her nipples!

The second is called "Black as night" and is a bit surreal with the lines on the body but it seems to work somehow - someone said that it looked like the bones in the body, which is an interesting concept!

The third one is lots of interplay between the shapes of the blues, reds, yellows and is called "Wishful thinking" and has a joke within the image, if you can see it??? :)