The “naked” body

I’ve decided to write about my experience of nude art.
I think it’s a really important topic and I talk to so many people about it and there’s always so much to say. It’s been an ongoing evolving experience full of so many amazing aspects.

I don’t quite know where to start but I’ll try to break it down into different aspects and hope that it’s easy and enjoyable to read.

Let’s start with me and how it started and how it has changed my view of the naked body.
Portraiture was always my favourite kind of art to do. I’m very much a people person and getting to work with people and tap into some emotion with them was always so important to me. To be able to give them something back but also to feed a personal need for contact too.

I joined Instagram a few years ago and loved how immediate it was to contact people from all over the world.
Before long I was making dear friends and joining a beautiful community of love and caring. I feel like I can make friends with anyone and once we’re friends, I care about you as if we’ve known each other forever.
The feedback on my art was wonderful and I started asking people if I could paint them. Some loved the idea and would take a few photos especially for me. It was very inspiring that people would go to that effort.
Others would say “sure! Just choose one from my profile”. It really killed the inspiration when they didn’t really care that much.
Inspiration is impossible to control and, as many of you artists out there know, it’s the lifeline to creativity.
I needed that personal touch between me and the person I was painting. If they loved the idea enough to put a bit of themselves into it, it was the perfect for me.

“My first nude painting”

Then someone wanted to be painted nude.
I’d never done anything like that before but was always curious to know why so many artists would only do nude art. The nude body was a sexual entity to me and something very private.
It was very surreal at first to be working with her on some poses but actually painting her was such an incredible experience.
It was the same inspiration as those before that would work with me but so much more.
Here was someone that put in more than a bit of effort. She was letting me see her naked body!
It changed my artistic experience there and then.
I shared it and had a great reception. Then went back to my normal portraits.
Then another wanted to be painted and another. Before long I was seeing new things in people. Finding new aspects of personality and getting much closer to them.
Portraiture is all about capturing something pure from the person. That’s why I always needed that personal touch.
Nude portraiture is the purest!
Now, when someone wants to be painted clothed, the inspiration isn’t there. It’s like the original people saying “sure just choose one from my profile”. It’s the same feeling.

If the inspiration comes from getting inside and finding something personal, covering up is like blocking the possibilities of what I can find.

“What posing nude does for the model”

I’ve worked with so many people that have such severe insecurities or even hated their body so much that they couldn’t even look in the mirror without crying.
Most people will understand this as awful, but with the way I now view bodies, it’s even worse for me.
Because I see the body as a body, to hear people having so much crippling sadness is crazy and painful. I understand, of course, and I’m very empathetic but I know it doesn’t need to be that way. And shouldn’t be that way.
So I help them.

It can be like a therapy for them and it’s so rewarding and inspiring for me.
I’m now on a mission to normalise nudity. It’s become so much bigger than “what to paint?”
To show that, no matter how your body is or how you look, beauty is all about energy and we can all be, and are, beautiful.
When you see the body as a body and natural, no longer as a sexual entity, it’s really overwhelming and it effects you in so many aspects of life. It’s liberating and a revelation. It’s like an awakening. To suddenly feel comfortable about your naked body, love it and appreciate it you realise that the word that was causing all those issues was the word “naked”.
You’re not naked without clothes. There’s no such thing as naked. It’s you and it’s your body.
Once you feel this way, it’s laughable that you didn’t before. It’s like a “of course!!!” moment. Like an Agatha Christie novel when the guilty person was looking you in the face all along. That kind of “ahhh of course!! Duh”.
It’s wonderful.
I used to judge people for being naked or semi naked all the time. I felt like they should have some self respect. But now I get it!
They did have self respect. They were proud about seeing the body as it should be seen. Not having others or society telling them what they should feel about something so natural and normal and more importantly, theirs!
How can you have self respect if you don’t respect your body as it is ?

Helping people see things this way is now the essence of my work.
Of course, I want to create beautiful images but that’s almost a side topic now.
I know that every single person out there can be painted beautifully, because just by accepting your body and removing any sexual ideals, what it does to you is a beautiful thing and it shows.

Moving away from your old perception is where the magic happens.
Beating that shyness or, in some cases, demons from the past helps change you and create a new brighter energetic person.
I have many stories that would make you cry and quite often I’ve cried whilst painting them or working with the individual.
Stories of child abuse, rape, obesity, eating disorders, extreme weight loss, abusive partners and shame. All things that made that person feel disgusting or severely anxious about allowing someone to see their body.
I’ve worked closely with people that have had awful journeys in life and I take part of their emotions with me into the whole process. It’s impossible not to.
The most wonderful part is that my part in their journey is something so positive and life changing. Those tears I have when painting are a mix of pain and pure joy. It’s like I’m liberated with them.
People ask me why I like painting nudes. I can’t think of anything else, apart from being in the medical world, that can be so involved and so rewarding. Making a difference to people’s lives and seeing the immediate change.
It’s amazing how something so simple as allowing another to see your body can be so therapeutic.

Now, when someone wants to cover up, it feels like censorship. It goes against the whole purpose of my art now. My inspiration and my message.
People often think I only paint models but it’s so far from the truth. I paint a few for sure, mainly because they know how to pose and they obviously have a great energy because of how they feel about their body and nudity. But 90% of the people I paint have never done anything like it before and the thought of being seen by another was the last thing they ever wanted.
The change in them brings the beautiful energy.
Not only did they feel ugly or disgusting but now people think I only paint models. What does that say about where they were and what the process does to you.

“The artwork and the process”.

Nude art for me is about nipples.
There’s something so powerful about nipples. They have so much emotion surrounding them, psychologically and societal. People feel naked if their nipples are seen.
For most of the people I’ve painted is was more about being bold and beating the hold that their body had over them. So having nipples on display wasn’t enough. They had to bare all.
But for me, nude art is just about the nipple.

There are some images where wearing clothing of some sort or holding material or a scarf really adds to it and some where fully nude is better. But if the nipple is showing, the energy is there.
Nipple censorship seems to be so important in the world, so sexualised, that by not allowing them to be censored you’re already beating perceptions.
We are constantly trying to beat social norms with things like “free the nipple!” or the taboos about breast feeding.
It’s crazy. You can cover your nipple with the tiniest bit of tape or pixelate it on social media and all of a sudden the image is acceptable ?
Imagine if it was your ear lobe instead of a nipple that had this effect. An ear lobe that society wanted covered up.
It’s no different. We know it’s different because guys can show theirs without any sexual connotations. It’s ludicrous.
We all know this but until you actually accept it and do it, you won’t truly feel how ridiculous it is and how wonderful it is to be free of that taboo.

I work from photos.
Partly because live painting is a very different skill but also because, getting people to take a few photos in private is much more possible than getting someone to sit naked and be stared at for a few hours. Not to mention, I paint people from all over the world.

Allowing someone else to see your body is a huge thing for most people. It takes a big step.
But once it’s done, it’s done.
I’ve found that everyone struggles with that first photo but after it’s sent all those fears, worries and insecurities disappear. Like magic.
The perception changes in that moment.
All their feelings towards nudity and their body are about being seen. So when someone has seen them, it’s passed. They no longer have fears about them being seen because it’s done.
Then they feel great because they’ve beaten it! It’s such a sense of achievement.
I promise, however you feel about nudity or being seen, will change immediately.
I have no desire to see anyone naked. I get new people wanting to be painted every week. I painted over 60 women last year.
It’s not about that for me.

It’s about introducing it to someone new, showing them that there’s no one type of person that does this, helping people feel different about themselves and nudity and creating something beautiful in the painting.
I truly believe that everyone should do this at some point in their life.

“From Posing to being painted”

I send people a few pose ideas to try. To show them what works well for painting and to inspire them when they pose.
There are a couple of ways of doing it, depending on how shy the person is.
I care so much about you in this process. It’s all about you, your journey and your comfort.
There are ways to help you overcome the shyness and we can take it step by step. There’s no rush and you have to enjoy every aspect otherwise it goes against the whole point.
But the best way I’ve discovered, and something I do most, is getting people to just take a mirror selfie with no clothes.
It sounds drastic and unrelated but it’s really not.
It came about because people felt so ugly naked, that even though they really wanted to do it, there was no way they could pose with intent.
Also, because I knew it was all about that first photo, I tried it.
I knew it would be fast and easy to do. No camera setup or time needed. Just go to the mirror and do it.
I found that people could do this and then all those fears and worries were beaten.
Then we could focus on poses with so much more freedom, because they no longer worried about being seen by me.

It also helps me think of ways to paint you and helps my pose selection for you. Rather than generic poses, it’s more personal and inspiring for you to know that someone believes you can do these poses.
Now it’s kind of become protocol and most people go with it. I mean, if I’m going to see your body anyway, why does it matter ?
It’s just a psychological aspect to get past.
It’s not essential to do it this way. Like i said, it’s all about you and how you feel best.
I just know this is fast and super effective.

“The artwork”.

The beauty of doing this is you get all the benefits of stripping your clothes off and running through the streets without doing it.
It’s quite amazing.
No one sees you naked. They see a painting.
It doesn’t matter how precise the artwork is, how detailed, it’s still not you. It’s paint. It’s not a photo.
It’s less you than taking a photo of your head and sticking it on someone else’s body.
You feel it’s you because of the journey to get there. You have all the emotions and process wrapped up in the artwork, but because it isn’t you, you feel fine about it.
There are many stages of liberation too.
The mirror selfie.
The poses I send you, inspired by you.
The posing you do.
The artwork being started
The artwork finished
The artwork being shared on social media.
The comments you see about it/you.

You get all these if you’re anonymous….
So many people state they have to be anonymous but after the liberation, they no longer care. They feel so different about nudity that their previous perceptions no longer exist. Plus they feel so great and proud that they want to celebrate! They want to scream from the rooftops “it’s meeeee”.
It’s so wonderful.
If you decided you didn’t want to be anonymous, you get even more stages of liberation…
Being named
Sharing it yourself to people that know you.
Putting out there yourself for all to see

But it’s really important to know that if you’re anonymous, no one will ever know.
It’s just you and the artist.
I even painted the same girl twice last year and her sister, who also knows me and saw the artwork, didn’t realise it was her.
People just aren’t looking at it that way. They simply see a beautiful painting.
Not to mention that most artwork could be a number of people

“All you need to ask yourself is”

Do you want to be painted and do you care if the artist sees you.

One more person in the world.

Someone who does this for a living. Who has painted every body type, all ages and will not see you as naked or judge any aspect of your body.
If you don’t care, the rest is just easy! If you do care, believe me, it will change as soon as you send that selfie.