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.....

Split second decisions

Having spent the last two weekends gallery sitting I've had time to sit and surreptitiously watch the viewing public in an art gallery setting, and what surprised me most was how short a time people spend actually looking at art. Some people were taking two to four SECONDS to look at each painting! Now, I can do that too, for some art, because to me it might be a poorly painted piece, BUT when I see a painting I like, it'll stop me dead in my tracks and I will be transfixed for minutes infront of it, taking in its beauty and admiring the technical brilliance of it, or the choice of subject matter, the way the colours work together, or some other thing that makes it a stunning piece of work, for me. I love it when I see a painting that I couldn't improve on. But the majority of people obviously aren't artists so are therefore not looking it in the same way I do. And if I was to ask them about pictures they would say "Oh, I don't know anything about art!" to which I would reply "Oh.... BUT you DO!!" - in those split seconds their brains are analysing the artwork, deciding whether they like it or not, whether it appeals or repels, and making informed decisions about it. Sometimes you'll see a couple going around an art gallery and they'll stand infront of each and every painting and make loud comments about it "OOOh, I don't like this one!" or "That cat looks just like our neighbours three legged ginger tom, Lucky" or "Oh, we went there on holiday that wet Easter week when our Jane had measles and the dog threw up all over Grandma", and sometimes you learn from their comments......... and sometimes you wish you hadn't!!! (I stopped being sensitive years ago - I don't mind if people say out loud that they don't like a particular painting - at least they've noticed it).

But most people don't invite discussion with their companions, usually they make their own decisions in their own minds. Art's very personal. We either like it. Or we don't........

.........And what's really nice is after sitting in a gallery for two hours on my own, when for the first half hour there was a steady stream of people, then a WHOLE HOUR of not a soul, when the sun is blazing down on one of the nicest days of the year and I'm wondering why I'm stuck inside on my own on such a glorious day, until another steady stream of people arrives and no one says anything to me. I leave.......But the next day, when I went to collect my paintings, a woman who also stewarded the gallery at another time says that she adored my "A step above" painting and both she and her friend put it in their "Top Three" paintings of the whole exhibition and she loved it so much as it reminded her of her holidays in France, and asked me where it was of? I smiled and said "A tiny village in France, in the Ardeche". She said how much she loved it, and was very interested in buying it. She likes it and is thinking about it...............

Holding the dream

I'm always busy with art, but never too busy that the prospect of a new commission doesn't excite me greatly. Last weekend I was gallery sitting for one of the many exhibitions I'm part of over August and was delighted that a woman expressed interest in the two tango paintings I had got there, amongst others, and wanted to buy the original tango painting I did, which was illustrated on one of the cards I was selling. Unfortunately, I'd sold it two years ago and told her so, but was quick to point out that I could easily repaint it as close enough to the original that she wouldn't tell the difference, if she wanted it badly enough. She then went on to tell me that she actually wanted two tango paintings for her dining room, as they would match the decor and I agreed it was a splendid idea and said she could design them however she wanted the dancers to be and I would paint them gladly for her. She agreed to commission me, we agreed a date in the week for her to come and see me and for me to show her my studio and discuss between us her ideas. She left. I was floating on cloud nine - not one delightful commission but TWO!! Yay!! But I know the way things go and am of the painfully learnt opinion that until the money for a commission is in my hand, I haven't sold a painting. I'm a very optimistic and upbeat person but also realistic enough to know how people are............. And sure enough........... a couple of days later she rang me to say that ALTHOUGH she STILL wanted the paintings, and had taken her husband to see my work and he REALLY liked my paintings too, he felt that it might be a good idea to WAIT until the building work was completed on their house before commissioning me to paint the pictures, so it would probably be better to wait until after Christmas (CHRISTMAS?????!!!) or perhaps even the spring. Ok I said, trying to sound bright and keep it businesslike, and came off the phone a lot less buoyant than when I'd answered it.........

But this is the way of buying art. Other things take priority. Art gets put to one side. And I understand that because mortgages, food, clothing, petrol and household expenses all have to be bought before art. But, and this is also the way of art, she might well come back to me, at some point in the future, and ask me to paint those pictures for her, and I'll do them, competently, completely and design the pictures she is carrying in her head, and she will love what I do, and put them on her dining room wall and all her friends will admire them and fall in love with them too........