Unveiling of the Queyntes

Well now, where was I? Oh, yes I remember! Fannies!! (or for the Americans amongst you Pussies!!).

Just to give you the background before I do the grand unveiling, I wrote a year ago (and it is a year, all but one day, now that I've checked, Wow!) about wanting to do the paintings as a celebration of womanhood - as bright and colourful abstracts of their most innermost secret places. The thought was that when someone has their portrait painted, its of their face with their name as the title - but in this case I wanted the names to be anonymous - so unless the participants reveal it, I won't say who they are. I originally asked for volunteers and at the time ten women contacted me, but I only received good enough photos from seven of them - and these are the original seven here. I hope that more women will be interested in having their "Queynte" painted and I would love to see them all part of an exhibition somewhere for the world to see - because just seeing the seven of them together is a beautiful thing already! I hope to sell any to anyone who is interesting in purchasing them - but at this moment I have no idea what price to put on them because I have put so much of MYSELF in them, I don't know how to put a financial value on it as yet (I will in time, I just need to think a bit about it for a while!). I painted them intuitively - which is a new concept for me - and one I like very much. It was the right way of painting them, as they are so personal, and abstract. The point of the abstraction was so that they, although anatomically correct, are hidden enough in colouring and some of the external shapes to hide the image for what it is. I want them to be hung on a wall so that anyone other than the people who know, would not know what they are - except for something exotic flower shapes maybe, that may just resemble something subconsciously and vaguely erotic.....

They are painted in acylics on 20 x 16 inch boards. The reason I used the acrylics was because I needed the paint to be bright and to dry quickly and cleanly, leaving me time to work intuitively and quickly without the annoyance of waiting for paint to dry (and losing the impetuous of the intuitive way of painting) or of the paint annoyingly merging into other colours and muddying the effect. I liked using the board as it absorbed the paint very quickly, leaving no room for error or a change of colour. Once the colour was put on the board, it stayed there, and other than brightening a colour here or there for more depth, I haven't overworked it to ruin the effect (always a concern for artists!).

At the moment, all the participants are bloggers, but that doesn't exclude any other woman from participating, I won't restrict it to that degree.

All the paintings have a woman hidden within the folds to remind you what the image is about.

I'm delighted with them - I've put so much of myself IN them, and they are EXACTLY what I predicted last year that I wanted them to be - bright, beautiful and SHAMELESS.

So, now they're here - what do you think of them.......

Tidying up ready for the big one

I've been working on the pen and ink Christmas card design of the three kings this week, and fighting the urge to incorporate a naked woman among them, as per the suggestion I've had from a couple of irreverent and naughty friends!! Not that there's a deadline on it until the end of September, but it needs doing and I'd rather to do it and get it out of the way so that I can concentrate properly on the Fantasy Fannies/Pussy Portrait set of paintings that have been put on hold since last September. I really don't like having had to put them to one side, as they're really very important and special to me and I think they will be to the women in question who I'm painting in such an intimate way - I'm itching to get working on them, and am very excited at the prospect of doing them. But unfortunately, a lot of things have been stopping me getting on with them, but now the way is clear, and I can start work very soon! YAY!!

As well as that this week I've re-vamped another old painting - a third! (I'm on a roll!) and am again delighted at the end result that a bit more paint, and lots more knowledge, can revitalise a mediocre painting into a special one, worthy of hanging on a wall. This one is a vanilla painting of some old fishermen cottages at Prussia Cove in Cornwall that I originally did a number of years ago. Its along a quiet and secluded dusty track to the sea and the cottages were ideal to paint - really very picturesque with their old stone walls, rusty roofs and bright blue peeling paint! I went over the paintings with bright Windsor blue, and dramatic burnt sienna, and added a touch of violet to the shadows, as well as added detail and splatter to the mass of foliage in the foreground and the thatch of the first cottage roof. I also cut down the painting to a smaller size than the original, which makes it a more interesting and exciting composition. I'm really pleased with it now, even though its not a greatly exciting subject matter (for me!). Maybe it will be for someone else.

And this week I received the phone call I've been waiting for - the woman who had the dog portraits painted for her husbands birthday was delighted with them, and so was her husband, fortunately! She kindly rang me to give me the feedback of his reaction, which was all positive and good. She's also told all her friends about the paintings I've done, and sung my praises so maybe I'll get more commissions through her. At this rate, I'll be better advertising at Crufts rather than the erotica shows!!! Can you be an erotic artist AND be good at dogs? Don't answer that, I think I'm gonna regret asking that question!!!!! LOL