Erotic weekends are good fun

I've had a really good Erotic Artist weekend starting with interesting conversations in the pub on Friday, followed by a portraits in oils workshop on Saturday and the Guild of Erotic Artists Event day on Sunday. Phew!

The workshop went really well, the tutor who was running it certainly knows his stuff and is laid back in his approach, but full of useful tips for learning how to paint portraits. My painting wasn't finished in the time spent, but I was actually happy with it as an "unfinished" piece. The sitter was a fascinating mix of a woman, she was half Irish and half Pakistani, so had gorgeous bone structure and a delightful personality to go with it. She was very spiritual too, so full of life and vitality, looked many years younger than her true age and was a joy to be around and to paint. Plus an old friend I've not seen for a year or so was there too so it was great to catch up with her again.

Then on Sunday it was the Guild of Erotic Artists Event day, and I’ve not been to one for the last two months, due to various logistical reasons, so it was good to go and catch up with everyone there again.

Since it was a glorious sunny day a few people were sitting around outside chatting when I arrived, and I noted the car park was newly laid with hardcore (are you allowed to say that word in relation to the Erotic world?!) and packed with cars.

I was delighted to see one of the guys as I walked towards the Studios, who always greets me warmly with a hug and bright smile. We exchanged pleasantries, before both deciding we were going inside for a refreshing cup of tea.

And what a transformation, from my last visit! The kitchen area has been revamped and is a lot brighter and more welcoming, and still with the welcoming caterer in attendance to cater to our needs. Another hug with her as I placed my order for a cup of tea and bacon buttie!

The Guild Secretary by then had seen me from across the room and came for another hug and warm greeting, closely followed by his brother with a big bear-hug to outmatch even his brothers!

Then a face appeared that I hadn’t seen for a year, so more grins of greeting and as I said hello to my photographer friend. We always seem to find a lot to talk about so it was good to catch up with him and compare notes about promoting our artwork.

He and I were still chatting as another couple appeared – their happy and smiling faces are always very easy to be around, and we all stood together as the entertainments of the day started, but before that the Guild secretary followed by the other founder member had a few words for the assembled throng. It was the seventh anniversary of the Guild being formed, and as usual they had positive and uplifting words for the members, and was delighted to say that a beautiful cake had been donated by members which would be cut later on in the day, although with all the beautiful decorations on it, it was a shame to cut it! There were various photos in icing sugar of different events that were poignant for the Guild over the last few months, and they were featured on the cake.

Then it was time for the entertainment of the day. The first was by a woman who gave us a brief and informed history of Burlesque before showing us an alluring example of the way to remove stockings as two other girls also removed elbow length gloves. I had a chat with the women later and she was most passionate about her love of Burlesque and the way it seems to be very acceptable and appealing to women.

The next was a delightful surprise, as it was a belly dance by a girl who obviously knew what she was doing. Her outfit was black velvet with silver and diamante detail, and as she shook, shimmied and undulated, the light flashed off her beautiful outfit, adding to the lovely feminine movements of her rounded form as she danced to the beat of the Turkish music.

As if that wasn’t enough entertainment, we were also treated to a model starting almost nude, then being wrapped in black, red and pink pvc bondage tape, the opposite of a strip-tease but most interesting all the same and she certainly seemed to be enjoying it and all the attention she was getting!

Whilst all of this was going on, the body painting artist was intently painting a bra on a woman who wasn’t wearing one! She sat in the heat of the lamp, as he patiently painted every detail for her, and from where I was standing, I had a lovely viewpoint through a gap between one of the barn upright supports and the partition wall, which gave it a real erotic voyeuristic effect. When I mentioned it to him afterwards he said he wished he’d known as he’d have asked someone to photograph it. Its always a delight to talk to him, his lovely laid back style and delicious sense of humour always appeals to me.

I did had a long chat and interesting chat with the smiley couple about being comfortable with body image, and the differences between what women are happy with compared to what men like. We also discussed the different types of clothing that we felt happy with.

Then it was time to cut the cake, and we were all handed large wedges of it, to celebrate the occasion. And very delicious it was too! I was able to catch up with another couple then, who are very supportive of the Guild. He showed me a drawing that he was very enamoured with, and I admired it with him, as we talked about buying and selling art, and I told them about my latest commissions that I’ve been working on for some weeks but are almost complete now. Both of them were most interested to know about them as I described designing and painting my first “Fantasy Willie” acrylic painting on a large canvas, and the “living flame” style of painting that I love to use for painting bodies, with the glazing technique of laying one translucent colour over another letting the colour under it shine through the one on top. They said they’d have a look at my website and blog to see the effect I was talking about.

It’s always interesting to hear what other people are doing in their work, and a delight when others are interested in what we are doing in turn. Late in the afternoon, I had a nice easy chat with the videographer, as I had noted him quietly videoing the various entertainments of the day.

Almost time to go, and I’d taken one of my “Fantasy fanny” canvas’s to hang on the wall but wasn’t sure where it was going to fit with all the new hanging that the Guild secretary has done recently, but he said it would fit in easily and was very appreciative of the bright colours in it as he pointed out where it would probably hang.

Time to go, a quick chat smiles and hugs with everyone who was still there, and off into the late afternoon sunshine with a warm feeling of being with my friends again.

So, all in all, a busy but interesting weekend. I'll tell you about the conversation in the pub at a later date................. :)

There's a pattern here

Well, as expected, I sold no paintings at the exhibition at the weekend. And don't think I'm being depressingly negative, and I'm certainly not defeatist, and never a pessimist..... You see, the majority of the paintings sold were at the lower end of the market, price wise, since it was a "village hall" exhibition. And I know my paintings aren't cheap, but they are quality, and I rarely sell at that exhibition. Its the way it is! I've had endless conversations over the years as to the whys and wherefores of why people don't buy a lot at little exhibitions, and there is no set reason for it. But there is a pattern, in a way. People who go to those sort of exhibitions are looking for "cheap art" - something pink and floral for the hall, something with a boat in it for the living room, some watercolour of a garden, or of cute children, or a still life, they aren't looking for anything "specific" and they aren't looking for a specific artist, they're looking for a nice day out, a walk in the countryside, a quick look at the art exhibition, a cup of tea and a piece of cake, and to be entertained on a bank holiday weekend. They are not serious art buyers, they are just..................people. Nothing wrong with any of that, nothing at all. But I never seem to fill that category, somehow. I never have. I do fill part of that criteria, I can paint pretty pictures of still lifes (the shell painting I did last weekend, being a case in point!). But my prices are too expensive for village hall buyers, I think. I know if I put a price of below £60 on my art, I'd probably sell it, easily.

But I don't want to.

I value my art too much for that.

And listening to other people, who comment on my art, they do too.

Because cheap art, in a way, demeans the other art that that artist does. And I don't do cheap art. I don't do very expensive art, either! :) I think my prices are right for the place I am in, as an artist. For the commissions I do. And I would far rather paint a commission. And that is what makes me unusual for a lot of artists, as I LIKE painting commissions. I like people to ask me to paint a favourite subject in a certain way. Because they get just what they want, and I don't paint "best guess" paintings for little exhibitions, put a lot of hours in in creating the work, setting up the exhibition, spend time stewarding it, and helping taking it down afterwards, for no sales.

But, I also know that that isn't the main reason for exhibiting. It is, to state the bleeding obvious, an "exhibition" of paintings. It is a place to show other people what I can do. What I'm capable of. And that's why, it looks like I might be getting a commission from it, for a dog portrait. If the chap contacts me, as per the received message from a third party. It sounded quite hopeful though! LOL

So, the exhibition wasn't a waste of time. And it follows the pattern, as much as I've found, from previous exhibitions! :)

Teaching teacher

The people who commissioned the portrait of the horse"Elliot" came to pick the painting up this week. I had met them before when I went to take the photos of Elliot, but that was at their house. And they wanted to come to my house to collect the painting, as it is a surprise and they didn't want the game to be given away by my going to their house with the surprise gift. So the meeting was arranged and they came to me with no prior knowledge other than a brief meeting and a knowledge that I am a local artist.................. who does horse portraits........

They arrived and I welcomed them in, and we stood chatting about animals, and art. I showed them a few paintings that I've done, as they passed them on the way to my studio, and we stopped and chatted about the art and the various techniques that I'd used to create the paintings. They liked them, and were interested, which is always gratifying :)

Eventually, I led them into my studio and showed them the portrait of Ellliot, which they loved, and said I'd just captured his look, which was great to hear. It's always a slight concern when revealing a portrait, that the painting looks like the subject matter. Infact I was reminded of that when chatting to my photographer friend over the seas, when he said that a photographer cuts out the excess of what he can see to make the image, whereas an artist puts in ALL they can see to make their image. Interesting contrasts. But I'd obviously caught all that makes Elliot, for his painting, which is always great to hear that I'd not missed anything!

We carried on chatting about other pieces of art I'd done, various paintings were scattered around the studio, including Fitzy's working painting of him done in the living flame style, and his "fantasy willie" half completed, that I was working on when they arrived. I ignored it as it was "just" an abstract as far as they were concerned, and didn't need to know the specifics of it. The chatting flowed, and as we talked I was aware of the guy looking at what was behind me, and when he was able he enquired about it - my certificate of membership to the Guild of Erotic Artists, he was intrigued (especially as he had NO idea at all that I did Erotic art!! LOL). So I explained that I was an erotic artist, and waxed lyrical over it, as I am apt to do! They both listened, and asked various questions, and I told them about the "fantasy fannies" project, and how that has lead to the "fantasy willies" project, and that I've had a huge response to it all already! I carried on with my chatting, and the woman fell quiet as I spoke, and then asked me why don't I teach? She said "You're passionate about your art, and are "fresh" in your approach". It turned out that she teaches teachers, and she thinks I'd make a good teacher. That made me think. Do I want to teach? Is it the way forward? She says she'll help me if I want any advice from her, and I've taken her up with her offer. I like her and her husband and will be happy to see them again.....

I'm thinking about it.

Oh, and it turns out that she lives in the same village that I did my WI talk for, 18 months ago. She's a busy woman and isn't a WI member but is aware of the talks, and was sorry that she had missed mine. Apparently she also missed the chance to hear a talk about the joys of hearing aids as well............................................. I'm not sure which one might have been the high light!! :)


Still, she's already learnt something from me.

If you want your horse painting, come and see an erotic artist! :)

Horsing around

Fitzy knew when we agreed the two paintings that I'm currently doing for him that if I had other deadline commissions, that they would take precedence over the timing for his artwork, and was happy with that possibility. The only reason I said it was because I knew the artwork that I'm doing for Fitzy is going to take a while to paint, as I'm having to do two working paintings before I start the two canvas's proper. And, sure enough, soon after I started work, I was asked to paint a picture for a birthday in May, so I've got a deadline, just as I predicted! LOL

The painting in question is totally different to the ones I'm doing for Fitzy, as it's Elliot. And Elliot is a bit different to Fitzy. He has lovely long black hair, he has brown eyes, a bit of a beard, long nose, big ears, and four feet. Well, hooves really. Because Elliot is............ a horse. I met him a couple of weeks ago when I was asked to go and see him and take photos for the portrait I'm doing of him. I duly went along at the arranged time, feeding time infact, as that was deemed the part of the day when he was more likely to be amenable to a stranger taking photos of his best side. Of course, he was curious to start with, but soon got bored of the tiresome task of having to lift his head AND look intelligent AND look the right way AND have his ears forward AND not be eating whilst he was doing it. So he kept wandering off. The back end of a horse is not that photogenic, so I had to get to the right end, rather than the wrong end, and try to photograph him in the the right light, with all the aforementioned posing involved too!

I've NEVER taken so many photos of one thing before. Photo. Photo. Photo. Photo...........Photo. Photo...............

After taking endless shots I thought at least a few of them would be right, but on getting home I found that only one fit the criteria of him looking around, with ears forward, looking curious and friendly, not eating, not side on, and not full on. Phew. Do all super models have this problem, I wonder? LOL

Well, no matter, one photo was all I needed. And that is what I've been working from, and this is the painting I've done, in acrylic on line and wash board. Acrylics are the best thing to use for animal portraits, as you can build up the light hairs on dark background, dark hairs on light background that is the animal. And that is how you get the character of the animal too. I think I've got a good likeness to Elliot, I just hope the person who is receiving this as a birthday present thinks so too.................... She's not seen it yet. The bit I like best, is the bit of flicked paint around his mane, that makes him look like he's moving a bit, and the white blow of air below his mouth, that makes him look alive. Well, the intelligent eyes, the right shape for a horses head, the colours, the nuances of tone of his hair all help too of course!!!!! LOL

Happiness and sorrow

My mind's full of the Erotica show I'm doing in a couple of weeks but as well as that I've had a recent commission to complete. Its nothing to do with Erotica, and isn't in the slightest bit erotic in any way. But its been very important to do. Because its of a dead person. She died recently, and I was asked by her widower to paint his favourite photo of her. I've never met her, and had only a handful of photos to work from to produce the watercolour he wanted. And watercolours are always so difficult, because the slightest error will show, and I'd have to start again with a fresh piece of paper. So I painted the picture and was happy that I'd got a good likeness to the woman in the photos, but they were just split seconds of time when a camera has captured her expression. Did they capture her essence and soul as well? I framed the painting and took it along to the chap who'd commissioned it. It was wrapped up as I arrived, for transportation. I unwrapped it, and stood holding it to show him, and looked at him as I did it. As soon as he saw it, his face crumpled, and he said her name outloud as he burst into tears. I felt sorry for him, and told him so, but I also said it was the best reaction he could have given me. Tears! It meant I'd captured her. And I came away feeling warm within myself. That I have a talent to create artwork that evokes happy emotion like that. I feel that I've served my purpose. I'm sure he will spend long quiet and poignant hours looking at that painting, and remembering the happy life they had together. Sad memories, but happy ones too.

So that was a bit of sadness, but also this week I've contacted the woman whose fanny is Queynte 10, and told her I'd finished her painting. And was delighted at her response - tears of happiness! Wow! I still find it humbling the reaction my art has on people.

So, now I've just got to crack the secret of appealing to the visitors to"Erotica" !!!! LOL

Seeing eye to eye

I've been working on my latest dog portrait commission this week and am slightly annoyed that I've had to re-start the painting again as the original paper I started with buckled when I was less than a third of the way through the painting. If I'd carried on it might have got worse, it may not though, but I wasn't prepared to take that chance because I know I've got many hours of work to put into it and decided cutting my losses at this point was probably better than carrying on and making a hash of it. So I've re-drawn it and started painting again on line and wash board, but I don't normally use it and I'm finding it far more absorbant than the Bockingford watercolour paper I usually use, so its soaking up every tiny bit of paint very quickly. Still, I'm steps forward now and have done the base painting more or less, so the colour is on and now I need to build up the depth of colours through the fur on the dogs head. I've left doing the eyes until now as well as I prefer to do it when I've got to the mid point. So, I've had a "blind" dog as the empty eye sockets are still blank paper. So, deep breath, and hope to get the next bit right, cos if I get it wrong the whole thing will look bad. And ...............paint the eyes. Stand back and look to see how it's gone and...........................WOW! The whole painting comes alive! The dog can see! The eyes are liquid, with the light shining in them. The eyeballs sit in their sockets and the whole painting comes alive!!! I'm a happy bunny!!!! Yay!!!! But I don't know why I'm surprised, the eyes are the windows to the soul. If they show life, then I've captured the essence of the subject.

And just to add that Hornymaleuk has contacted me with a view to him wanting to pose for me again. Ok, so he obviously wasn't too put off with the last pose (and this is my posting about it here) then! (or the ones before that! - and this is my version of that). It's a while since I've drawn him, and he'll be posing with my usual model again..... so what poses shall I put them in? MMmm...... I need to think. Oh, this is going to be fun!!!!

If I'm not mistaken

Do you wanna hear a funny story? Well it certainly amused me greatly ..........
I'll share it with you and see what you think........

The other week a woman I know as a distant acquaintance from many years ago contacted me regarding wanting a painting done as a surprise for her husbands forthcoming birthday. She wanted a dog painting to match the previous one I had done for her some years ago. I couldn't remember doing it at all even though she was adamant I had and had told various friends of hers who admired it, that I was a good artist and how much she liked my work and was going to commission me again. It surprised me that I couldn't remember painting it, but since she was adamant I had, I put it down to a lapse in my (normally very good) memory. I said I'd be happy to paint another painting for her whilst wracking my brains about the original one I couldn't picture at all. She said she'd take some photos of the dog and we agreed to arrange my visit to her this week. As she gave me directions to her house, I knew I had certainly been there before, so presumed it must have been in connection with the painting I had done for her, which is why I could remember the house so well (although it's a very distinctive and beautiful house so it wasn't hard to remember). When I got there, she welcomed me in, and we sat chatting over coffee, discussing art, dogs, travel, cooking and various other general topics and it was only when she asked me if I had previously painted under the name "J Cross" that I realised why I couldn't remember the painting. I HADN'T DONE IT! Aah, that would explain things!! But she had asked me to paint the picture because she thought I had!! Whoops!!!! She thought the mistaken identity hilarious. And I must admit I do too! And the ironic thing is she still wants me to paint the picture as two heads of the same dog, and if she likes it enough will commission me to paint another head of previous dog of hers that has since died. So, I'm hopefully getting two commissions out of it, and all because she thought I was someone else! Yay! Good for me! Er, yes, but bad for the person who did the original painting. Not good for them at all!!! I was pleased though that the woman thought me more professional than the original artist, and I think I'll paint a better picture too. Hopefully she'll think so as well.

.........and I've remembered why I went to her house originally, and it's nothing to do with art at all!

So, I'm back on dog portraits again. I think I might seriously re-consider whether I'm in the wrong job. Perhaps I should do dog portraits for a living instead!

Background interference

After completing the dog portrait in time for the Christmas deadline, (even with a stinking cold!) I'm all poised to get on with the next erotic landscape when I receive a call requesting that the two women who are involved with the painting - the "requester" and the "giftee", (ie the woman who contacted me in the first place to order the painting and the woman for whom the present was intended) want to come and talk to me about the painting. Ok. Sounds sinister and I wonder what the problem is. It turns out, when they come to see me, that they love the portrait of the dog herself, and think I've caught her essence beautifully, and love her big soulful eyes and adore the painting EXCEPT for a slight alteration to the pinkness of the dogs ears BUT most importantly to the background. MMMm..... That was gratifying, that the only problem was in the background colour, and fortunately since the painting was done in acrylics it was possible to go over the colour with a different one (if it had been watercolour I'd have really struggled to do it and would probably have had to do the whole painting again from scratch!). So, what colour do you want? And it turned out, after they described colours to me, and I mixed up various shades to see that I understood the description of "more creamy greeny beige with a hint of yellow, but not too much, and not a lot of red or blue" that the colour they wanted was very similar to the colours of the dog. Mmm.... not a good idea and I explained why. That the colours I had originally chosen for the background colour complimented the dog, and made her stand out more, and made the picture more dramatic because of this. Yes, they understood this, but they wanted the dog blended in more to the background. Ok, I understand. But my problem was that I could see what the adjusted picture would look like, and needed them to understand it too before I started to change it and found that they actually preferred the original version! So, I painted them a couple of little thumbnails (small, indistinct sketches to show basic colours and basic tone as a guideline for how the paintings would differ). They stood and watched me as I did it and were still adamant at their decision. Ok. I'll do it then and contact them when I'd done the alteration. I made notes as to their request and had a full understanding of exactly what they wanted....

.....And that was the strange thing. Because I was perfectly happy with the original painting. I had chosen the colours with care, and matched it all perfectly. It balanced as a concept, as a painting, tonally and colour wise and I had painted it on my creative gut-reaction based on years of experience, every workshop, and art course I'd attended, every art tutor I had listened to, every book I had read, every piece of art I had seen and NOW I had to overwrite all of that with someone elses concept, and you know what? It was difficult. I had to ignore my own creativity and go with someone elses input. Plus I had to make the image look like it was originally painted like this, and keep it fresh so not over-paint it and make it look "tired" or strained or false. Mmm.... difficult. So, time to do it, and I got on with it. Painted over the background with the new colours, forever changed to the new colours, and I stood and looked and looked and looked at the new colours and wasn't at all sure that I was happy with them......... but I reframed the painting, rang the two women and awaited their arrival.....

......And you know what? They absolutely adored it!!!! Thought it was "fabulous"and that I'd done a wonderful job! Wow!!! So, they went away happy with the new version, and I'm happy they're happy but I'm still not sure about the colours..... What do you think? Which do you prefer?

Dare to bare - Pussy wanted

Every so often I get an offer I can't resist.



The latest one has come through a half joking conversation with 'Having my cake' via some of the comments for my last blog post. She brought up the subject of the cunt painting episode from 'Sex and the City' where Charlotte poses for a famous artist and he holds a large exhibition at a gallery showing all the pussies in gloriously detailed multi-coloured close-up. I immediately remembered that particular episode because of the artistic slant and the eroticness of the situation. Well between us, it's been decided that it would be a good idea for me to do it too. For her to pose for it, she considers it another step in her personal journey of body image acceptance and is trying to imagine an array of images entitled "Blogging Cunts - the exhibition!", particularly as in the 'Sex and the City' episode they were all anonymous. She considers it would be a good parlour game to match the blogger to the picture! So.......here's the request - I'm wondering which bloggers would be interested in posing for this most intimate of portraits. And I'm not talking about your face!



Presuming I get enough acceptances, we could have an exhibition where your identity, like in 'Sex and the City', was not revealed (unless you wanted it to be). Only you would know which pussy was yours. And just think, what a wonderful idea it would make as a Christmas present for your lover!!!!



So, whatever you want to call them - "Pussy Portraits" "Cunt Cameos" "Vagina Vignettes" "Quim Quintessentials" "Fanny Fantasies"....... are you interested in posing for me? If you are, and it doesn't matter where in the world you are, I will need a detailed photo, so email me and we'll discuss details.....



Oh, and now I can't wait for the reaction of the next person in the pub to ask me what the subject matter of my next painting is.....

Painting an essence

As an artist, I'm always trying to capture the essence of the subject rather than just the superficial image infront of me, so it was interesting yesterday to meet a spirit artist and clairvoyant, who talked about the importance of colour in painting the soul. She sees people's auras and paints those colours in her paintings, as well as trying to capture the spirit of the person within the facade of the face. The face is the life we've lived, as well as what we've inherited genetically, but within that facade is the life we want to live, the fantasies within us, the hopes and dreams, desires and emotions that drive us. How to paint that? How to look beyond the surface? To paint the spirit within us?

I know that I'm motivated by particular colours, and some colours are a turn off for me. I can never be motivated by dull "brown" as a colour in clothing or paint (whether its in a painting, or on a wall) but I love shiny "brown" in the hair of a stunning brunette, and as the colour of highly polished antique wooden furniture. I adore turquoise as a colour and am attracted to it as a moth to a flame, its a clear, bright, wholesome colour for me, and I adore it! So when I next paint a portrait, I'll work on gut reaction to colour for that person, whether they are a moodily intense dark chocolately colour or a lively light and airy shade of pink, a vibrant passionate crimson, or a calm and serene mint green.

And I'll spend the next week looking at people I meet and trying to just concentrate on one colour that eminates out of them, to me. Mmmm..... that's going to be interesting, I don't think I'd equate too much to lavender, lemon, beige and brown people, I hope I meet some magenta, scarlet, antique gold and midnight blue people......